Mandela’s Bunny Ear

Admirers of Nelson Mandela are hopping mad that the sculptor left a tiny bronze bunny inside the ear of the statue carved honoring the late Nelson Mandela. It was placed there for both the lulz and because the commissioner of the piece refused to let the artist sign his name.

From the DailyMail here:

A 30ft sculpture of Nelson Mandela has angered South African officials as the sculptors left a ‘signature’ on the artwork – a sculpted rabbit tucked inside one of the bronze ears.

The bronze memorial, which was unveiled outside the government complex in Pretoria, after Mandela’s funeral on December 16, is billed as the largest statue of the South African leader in the world.

Officials demand that the miniature rabbit is to be removed from the statue, claiming it mocks Mandela and his life’s work.

South Africa’s Beeld newspaper quoted the artists as saying they added the rabbit as a ‘trademark’ after officials would not allow them to engrave their signatures on the statue’s trousers.

At least it sounds like they had South Africans design and build the statue. For Martin Luther King Jr., the Chinese made the statue that sits on the mall because there are no talented black sculptors in the US.