Thanassis Totsikas photograph
Date: 2003
Region: Europe
Subject: Nudity Explicit Sexuality
Medium: Photography
Artist: Thanassis Totsikas
Confronting Bodies: 37 year old woman in conservative dress, wearing a cross, slashed the photograph.
Date of Action: December 2003
Location: Outlook, an exhibit associated with Athens's summer Olympics, Greece
Description of Artwork: Totsikas's photograph showed a naked man in a nature setting copulating with a watermelon
The Incident: Following the outrage against another work in the exhibition (see, Greek Museum Curator Ioakimidis on Trial) conservative Greeks began protesting artwork in Outlook. One woman stormed into the exhibit and slashed Totsikas's photograph. Another attempt was made to deface a sketch by artist Raymond Pettibon of a full frontal nude, ironically depicting Praxiteles's Hermes.
Results of Incident: Totsikas' painting was damaged and thus removed; the Pettibon remained on display.
Source: The Guardian, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/europe/story/0,11363,1106836,00.html