In a peculiar turn of events in Oslo, Norway, police broke into a parked vehicle to rescue what they believed was a person in distress, only to discover a strikingly lifelike wax figure of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The sculpture, the work of controversial Norwegian artist Morten Viskum, was scheduled for display at an upcoming art fair. Viskum had placed his work in the car ahead of the event. The police action was prompted by a concerned local resident who reported seeing what appeared to be a lifeless body inside the vehicle.
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NRK, a Norwegian news outlet, reports that Viskum has built a reputation for his provocative artistic endeavors, including previous wax sculptures of contentious world figures. His past works have featured likenesses of Russian President Vladimir Putin and former US President Donald Trump. Viskum's notoriety extends beyond sculpture; he once distributed jars of olives containing rats to 20 supermarkets across Norway's five largest urban centers. In another controversial project, he used a hand severed from a cadaver as a paintbrush, creating a series entitled "The Hand That Never Stopped Painting."
Bergen #Norway the country of #NobelPeacePrize 🕊️
The pro-Hamas Nazis show no respect for the Holocaust, as they share the same views towards Jews and Israel as their Nazi ancestors.
Source: TV2 https://t.co/ZoWwRCqPLV pic.twitter.com/ZO1YMFHwik
— On Elpeleg 🎗️ (@onelpeleg) July 24, 2024
Norway has long been known for its critical stance on Israeli policies, and in the wake of the October 7 attack, criticism of Israel within Norwegian artistic circles has intensified, with some exhibits veering into territory that has been labeled antisemitic. Commenting on the incident, On Alpeleg, a former Israeli resident of Norway, posted on X (formerly Twitter): "Yet another instance of a Norwegian 'artist' pushing boundaries. Following other 'artists' who superimposed a keffiyeh on Anne Frank's portrait and depicted Netanyahu as Hitler, this Norwegian 'artist' has now produced a wax effigy of Benjamin Netanyahu."
