Huge erection causes blushes on the eve of Royal visit

A giant statue of a naked man with a two-foot erection has caused a row in Salzburg after it was unveiled on the eve of a visit by Prince Charles.



Salzburg's mayor Heinz Schaden said he was horrified when he realised what the artwork comprised.

He said it would be impossible for Prince Charles to avoid seeing the figure when he arrives in the city and wants it taken down immediately.

Mr Schaden said: "No-one asked me or my office for permission to put this up, and if they had, we would have said no.

"I can't stress strongly enough how totally tasteless this is, and have demanded immediately that those responsible take it down."



Called Arc de Triomphe, the statue by artists Ali Janka, Wolfgang Gantner, Tobias Urban and Florian Reither shows a naked man bending over backwards with his hands on the ground and a two-foot erection thrusting into the sky.

The statue was described as a tribute to Viagra and was unveiled in front of the Rupertinum Modern Art Gallery, one day before Charles was due to fly in for a visit to the Salzburg Festival.

Artist Ali Janka said: "We didn't do it to shock the prince and we hope he will get to see it. We think it's beautiful and has a distinctly royal theme about it, with the majestic arch of the man bending over.

"It was a double honour for us to know that Charles would be going past and would see all our hard work. "

The festival, staged each year in the city of Mozart's birth, is famous for its operas, dramas and concerts