April 4, 2006 | Funny Bits

Naked Mozart vandalized

Mozart has been called a lot of things. Genius. Prodigy. Hypomaniac. But two men in the composer's native Austria recently called him something he's never been called before: Pornographic. The pair vandalized a nude statue of the composer because they considered it lewd, and are facing prosecution for their crime.

Last August, 80-year-old Martin Humer and his 79-year-old accomplice painted part of the "Homage to Mozart" sculpture in Salzburg, Austria, where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born, and covered it with feathers in protest of what they said was an obscene monument, The Associated Press reports.

Humer, who calls himself the "porn hunter," said the sculpture "has nothing to do with art and is a kind of pornography." Though no court date has been set, he faces vandalism charges for the damage he caused to the sculpture by German artist Markus Luepertz. Prosecutors estimate those damages to be worth $8,125, while the Salzburg Foundation estimates them to be many times higher, at $42,000.

Somebody had better be keeping watch over Michelangelo's David, because if Mozart is pornographic, then David is downright smutty!

• Austrian 'porn hunter' one of two men to be tried for defacing Mozart statue [South Bend Tribune]