Ten controversial works of art

1. Artwork or building sites?

Carl Andre caused an almighty row in the 1970s when he exhibited his artwork in the Tate Gallery and other art galleries around the country. The reason? It consisted of nothing more than a couple of rows of bricks placed on the floor.

2. The little boy who couldn't wait...

The Manneken Pis fountain might raise eyebrows in more traditional art galleries: it consists of a bronze statue of a naked little boy relieving himself into a stone receptacle.

3. Artist airs dirty linen in art gallery

Artist Tracey Emin is well known for her unusual works, but few were prepared for a piece which went on display in an art gallery in 2000. Entitled 'I Think It Must Have Been Fear', it featured a dirty sheet commemorating an accident she'd had in bed as a ten year old.

4. Shark-infested art gallery

A dead shark pickled in formaldehyde in a glass tank by Damien Hirst has graced some of the world's best-known art galleries, including the Saatchi Gallery and New York's Metropolitain Museum of Art.

5. Portrait of hate

Marcus Harvey is responsible for one of the most controversial portraits ever—a picture of murderer Myra Hindley created from handprints of small children. The piece went on display in one of Britain's foremost art galleries, the Royal Academy of Art, but had to be removed following a number of attacks by outraged visitors.

6. Model corpses

At over 7 m long, The Raft of the Medusa by French painter Théodore Géricault is too big for many art galleries. Depicting victims and survivors of a ship wreck, the artist is said to have brought severed limbs to his studio to add realism to his painting.

7. Dead ringer for Russian president

It wasn't controversial when it was painted in 1434 by Van Eyck, but the Arnolfini Wedding has raised some eybrows recently. That's because the man in the picture bears an uncanny resemblance to Vladimir Putin.

8. Art gallery calls fire brigade

A work by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, consisting of three child-sized dummies hanging by nooses from a tree, outraged one Milanese man so much that he climbed a ladder and fell while attempting to cut them down. The fire brigade was eventually called to remove the dummies, which still hang in an Italian art gallery.

9. Very bizarre young ladies

Most art galleries would find Pablo Picasso's painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon fairly tame today, but in 1907 its style and subject matter shocked many who came to see it.

10. That's a wrap!

Artist Christo is more likely to use art galleries in his work than display his work in art galleries. That's because his technique is to wrap very large things—anything from buildings to islands. In 1995, he and his wife caused controversy when they wrapped the German Reichstag building in silver fabric.