The humble garden gnome is usually associated with quaint tradition rather than progressive art. Nonetheless, a gallery owner in the German city of Nuremberg has caused controversy by displaying in his window a golden gnome making the Nazi salute.

The creator of the exhibition, art professor Ottmar Hörl, told DPA of his shock at the reaction to his work. "I am completely stunned," he said. "In 1942 it would have been the Nazis massacring me because of this piece." He argued that "presenting the master race as garden gnomes" clearly constitutes satire.

Earlier this year, Hörl, who has been president of the Nuremberg Academy of Fine Arts since 2005, displayed 700 of the Nazi gnomes in the Belgian city of Gent -- where they were seen by over 40,000 people -- and the Italian region of South Tyrol. The exhibition, entitled "Dance with the Devil," received no official complaints in either country and garnered postive feedback from the Jewish community

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,636570,00.html