Hoo boy. If you could rate news stories on the Scoville scale, this one would be up there with the California Reaper. Days after his first attempt at a mural depicting convicted child sex offender George Pell was painted over in Sydney for being “too offensive,” artist Scott Marsh has recreated the mural at a much more suitable location: The bloody Vatican.
[jwplayer 9dHcV5aJ]
The mural depicts Pell in handcuffs and a prison tracksuit, praying frantically in front of a dark Satanic figure.
Initially, Marsh painted the mural around 50 metres away from St Mary’s Cathedral in central Sydney, where Pell previously conducted mass.
That was removed at some point late last week by officials of Wilson Parking, who owned the property Marsh painted the mural on, who stated that they did so in response to “complaints from members of the public who find the painting offensive.”
In response to that, Marsh has apparently jumped on the first flight he could over to Italy, high-tailed it into Vatican City, and put an identical version of it up in the MUCH more appropriate setting: Right in the shadow of St Peter’s Basilica.
It’s certainly not the first time Marsh has used Pell’s image in his work, with numerous murals of his featuring the disgraced former Catholic archbishop currently dotted around Sydney.
Pell was found guilty on a raft of charges stemming from the sexual abuse of two boys in the 1990s. He was sentenced to six years’ jail in March for the crimes.
