Concerned it might offend Muslims, British museum removes sculpture

LONDON (RNS) — Out of concern it might offend Muslims in the wake of July’s suicide bombings, a London art museum has removed a sculpture made by one of Britain’s leading conceptual artists.

Tate Britain, London’s museum of British art, decided 84-year-old John Latham’s work might prove inappropriate in the tense atmosphere created by the July 7 suicide bombings in London.

The 1991 work, titled “God Is Great,” consists of a large sheet of glass in which copies of the Bible, the Talmud and the Quran are cut apart and apparently embedded.

The gallery told the BBC that the work’s interpretation was not being questioned. “It is the act of cutting the books which causes us concern in light of the particular environment post 7 July,” it said.