Organisers fined for controversial religion art exhibit

The Russian organisers of a controversial art exhibition on religion featuring works such as a crucified naked woman were each fined 100,000 rubles (2,800 euros, 3,600 dollars) by a Moscow court Monday. Yury Samodurov and Lyudmila Vasilovskaya, the director and an employee in the museum named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, were found guilty of inflaming religious hatred for presenting the January 2003 show titled "Attention: Religion" to the public.
The exhibition was "openly insulting and blasphemous and had a cynical and sacrilegious character," the court ruled in the first legal case of its kind in post-Soviet Russia, according to RIA Novosti news agency.
A third defendant, artist Anna Mikhalchuk, was found not guilty and the court ordered the works returned to their makers instead of following a prosecution request they be destroyed.
The judges said the organisers had "deliberately provoked" the public with the show, which included empty vodka bottles arranged in the shape of a cathedral, a naked woman in place of Jesus Christ on the cross, and a mirror that reflected the viewer's face on Jesus' body in the Last Supper.
"The actions of the museum's director and employee were open and public in nature. The accused understood the consequences of their actions," they said.
Samodurov and Vasilovskaya's lawyers vowed to appeal the convictions and fines all the way to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.
The exhibition sparked an outcry from members of Russia's Orthodox Church, which has re-emerged as a significant force in society after decades of Communist-imposed state atheism.
Four days after the show opened, six Orthodox activists splashed red paint over some works in the museum. Although sued by Samodurov, they were all later acquitted.
An unrepentant Samodurov told Moscow's Radio Echo that religion was fair game for art.
"The church and religion are an important part of civil society. It can't be above criticism. But it remains a taboo, like in Soviet times. We broke that taboo," he said. The group Human Rights Watch issued a statement after the verdict saying the convictions highlighted "a climate of growing intolerance for freedom of expression in Russia."
The head of the group's Western Europe and Central Asia division, Rachel Denber, said: "It sets a dangerous precedent for state censorship of art and public discussion."