Slideshow: the controversial sculptures

A hoax artwork which was supposed to celebrate European diversity provoked a full-scale diplomatic incident between Bulgaria and the Czech Republic today.

The sculpture, commissioned by the Czech government to mark their EU presidency, mocked Europe’s national stereotypes, but some governments have failed to get the joke.

Bulgaria has taken exception to its caricature, which depicts the country as a Turkish squat toilet. The country's ambassador wrote formal letters of complaint to the Czech EU presidency and Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, today.

Officials have demanded that the sculpture be taken down before the exhibit’s public opening tomorrow.

Betina Joteva, first secretary for the Bulgarian office to the EU, said: “I cannot accept to see a toilet on the map of my country. This is not the face of Bulgaria.”

The Czech government commissioned the work from David Cerny, but he claimed it would contain individual sculptures created by artists from all of the EU nations. It emerged yesterday that it was a hoax and that he had designed all of the works himself.

Alexandr Vondra, the Czech deputy prime minister for European affairs, said: “I was unpleasantly surprised to learn that the creator of the work of art Entropa was in fact David Cerny and that it was not made by 27 artists representing all the EU member states,” she said. A spokeswoman for her office said that a decision would be made today over whether to remove the artwork.

Cerny’s installation is a giant Airfix-style kit with the pieces representing all of the EU member states – except Britain because the sculptor claims the country has no interest in being part of Europe.

France is represented by a banner that reads “Strike!”, while Romania is an oversized Dracula theme park. Luxembourg is a tiny lump of gold with a “For Sale” sign and the Netherlands is depicted entirely submerged by water apart from minarets from the nation’s mosques. Sweden is an Ikea flat pack and Lithuania has three statues urinating on Russia.

Slovakia is also thought to have made a complaint about the way it has been portrayed – as a wrapped up corpse.

Cerny admitted yesterday that the whole thing had been a hoax, and that he had invented the names of the “up-and-coming” artists from the 27 member states.

There was also the question of what became of £350,000 in funding meant for the artists.

The Czechs tried to laugh off the growing controversy yesterday about the installation – unveiled on Monday in the atrium of the European Council building – but officials are now backtracking as the controversy spreads.

The incident has further undermined confidence in the Government’s abilities after a faltering start to the EU presidency since taking over from France on January 1.

Mr Cerny, 41, first gained notoriety in 1991 by painting a memorial to a Soviet tank in Prague pink, while his sculpture of a Saddam Hussein figure preserved in formaldehyde has been banned in two countries.

He released a statement from Prague yesterday: “We apologise ... for our failure to tell (Czech officials) about the real state of things and for misleading them.

“We knew the truth would surface, but before that, we wanted to find out whether Europe can take a laugh at itself."

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