Paul McCarthy Beaten Up over Butt Plug Sculpture

October 17, 2014

Paul McCarthy was attacked in Paris on Thursday while installing his contribution to FIAC’s “Hors Les Murs” program at Place Vendôme, reports Le Monde. Tree (2014) stands 24 meters-tall (79 feet) and is made of green plastic canvas in a form that resembles, depending on who you ask, a Christmas tree, a Brancusi sculpture, or a butt plug-type sex toy.

A perennial bad-boy even at 69 years-old, McCarthy began installing the sculpture at 11:30 am, according to the paper. At approximately two in the afternoon while the artist was surveying the completed work, an unknown assailant accosted McCarthy, allegedly screaming that his sculpture did not belong on the Place Vendôme before hitting him in the face at least three times. He was apparently additionally upset by the fact that McCarthy is not French.