July 7, 2010
Source: Birmingham News
Wire Service: AP
One painting depicted Jesus Christ as Mickey Mouse, another as Vladimir Lenin. The 2007 exhibit was part of an effort to fight censorship of the arts, but the Russian Orthodox Church was not impressed.
Now, after a 14-month trial, the two prominent Moscow art curators who put on the show are facing the prospect of three years in prison.
Artists and rights activists have appealed to the Kremlin to put a stop to the prosecution of Yury Samodurov and Andrei Yerofeyev, warning of a return to Soviet-era cultural censorship with the rules now d ictated by a conservative and politically powerful church.