The world art community spoke about the fact of political censorship in Azerbaijani art after two sculptures at the Venice Art Biennale were closed for viewers under instruction of President Ilham Aliyev.

It was later decided to remove two sculptures by Aidan Salakhova from the pavilion, the Russian Nezavisimay Gazeta writes.

Beral Madra, the Azerbaijan pavilion curator for the Venice Biennale, issued an official statement announcing the sculptures were removed.

Beral Madra said that she and Chingiz Farzaliev commissar and local curator have discussed with the authorities and responsible people of the pavilion and explained that removing the sculpture will mean “censorship” and it will do more harm to the image of the country than the sculpture itself.

Two sculptures were covered up after Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev visited the pavilion. President considers the marble sculpture “Bride” – a woman cloaked in a black veil is of Islamist character. Another one, depicting Black Stone of Mecca, an Islamic religious relic, was called “insulting Islam”.

The same applied to works on paper showing sexual images in the context of religion, for instance, a woman holding minaret resembling a phallic symbol.

It was officially reported that the sculptures were covered up “because of being damaged while transported”, the newspaper writes.