Authorities have requested the removal of a sculpture depicting a naked woman situated outside an asylum center in Germany, with critics arguing they did so over fear of causing offense to the 140 migrants set to move in on Friday.
A spokeswoman for the council stated the sculpture – called “The Sinner” and first installed in 1976 – “has left its usual place and is now situated in the courtyard of a large office complex,” adding that the decision was made to increase space in the area for further development.
The chairman of the centrist FDP party in Saxony, Holger Zastrow, contested the local council’s explanation, however, claiming that “art is banished from public space to the backyard because of assumed sensitivities… This is not acceptable. I demand of the administration that the sculpture be returned to its ancestral place.”
The resulting backlash has already caused the council to re-evaluate the plans, with the Lord Mayor of Dresden, Dirk Hilbert, admitting there was no planning for the decision nor financial resources to redevelop the area outside the center.
The asylum center expects to eventually house up to 280 migrants at a cost of €432,000 ($463,443) a year to local taxpayers, with Dresden’s construction mayor Stephan Kuhn admitting about the facilities, “We are housing only men here — from Afghanistan, Syria, and Venezuela.”
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