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A Buddha statue with a banana and two eggs in its lap has been turned round after police warned it was offensive.
The £125,000 bronze sculpture is the centrepiece of a display at a Norwich art gallery, reports the Daily Telegraph.
It also features Christ crucified on the back of a flying bomber and Hindu god Ganesh sitting beneath a Nazi helmet, but only the Buddha has been deemed offensive.
Complaints from local Buddhists led to an investigation by the police hate crime unit in Norwich.
David Koppel, the gallery owner, has now agreed - at least, temporarily - to turn the figure round so that it is facing away from the street.
"The police have now threatened to impound the sculpture and arrest me if it remains on public display. I have, for the time being, agreed to turn it away from the window," he said.
"But, on my return from holiday next week, I fully intend to return it to its full glory and turn it back facing the street."
Colin Self, the artist who created the statue, said: "One of the points of the work is to highlight how, in a global village where different cultures collide, you cannot help but upset somebody, somewhere, somehow."
Tom Llewellyn, of the Norwich Buddhist Centre, said: "I do not think it has much value or imagination. It is clearly intended to be provocative," he said.
A Norfolk police spokesman confirmed: "We have had a complaint in respect of the prominent exhibition of this statue on the basis that it causes religious offence."
The £125,000 bronze sculpture is the centrepiece of a display at a Norwich art gallery, reports the Daily Telegraph.
It also features Christ crucified on the back of a flying bomber and Hindu god Ganesh sitting beneath a Nazi helmet, but only the Buddha has been deemed offensive.
Complaints from local Buddhists led to an investigation by the police hate crime unit in Norwich.
David Koppel, the gallery owner, has now agreed - at least, temporarily - to turn the figure round so that it is facing away from the street.
"The police have now threatened to impound the sculpture and arrest me if it remains on public display. I have, for the time being, agreed to turn it away from the window," he said.
"But, on my return from holiday next week, I fully intend to return it to its full glory and turn it back facing the street."
Colin Self, the artist who created the statue, said: "One of the points of the work is to highlight how, in a global village where different cultures collide, you cannot help but upset somebody, somewhere, somehow."
Tom Llewellyn, of the Norwich Buddhist Centre, said: "I do not think it has much value or imagination. It is clearly intended to be provocative," he said.
A Norfolk police spokesman confirmed: "We have had a complaint in respect of the prominent exhibition of this statue on the basis that it causes religious offence."
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