Disputes continue regarding the work of the sculptor Oliviero Rainaldi, which was presented to the public in 2011. According to the English writer and journalist Ian Eych, the figure "Conversation" is more likely not like a Polish pontiff, but "Mussolini, who is trying to steal a child." Journalists put it on the list of "10 ugliest monuments in the world"
A sample of Italian art was in the Top 10 of the world ranking. True, this time we are talking about anti-rating. CNN has published a list of ten "ugliest monuments in the world." And eighth place was awarded to a statue dedicated to Pope John Paul II, installed in Rome in front of Termini station, designed by sculptor Oliviero Rainaldi. The monument - a tribute to the revered Polish Pope - in the opinion of the American company recalls not so much a pontiff, as "Mussolini, who is trying to steal a child."
With regard to the statue, located on Piazza Cinquecento, a stone's throw from Termini station and solemnly presented to the general public on May 18, 2011, there was a long heated discussion among the townspeople. Up to the fact that many asked to remove it from sight and not to disgrace the tourists. But after a year of power, they simply “corrected” the monument, changing the position of the head and the type of the cape, raising the pedestal and adding lighting. "The need for revision of the work became immediately apparent, and I first demanded it," then said Rainaldi.
Today, the sculptor again had to defend himself and turn to the experience of Michelangelo Buonarroti (Michelangelo Buonarroti): "The Sistine Chapel was also subject to harsh criticism."
A painful blow for the Italian creator was the location by Iain Aitch of his works on a par with the monument of the Courage of Resistance in the Soviet style in Belarus, the white and gold tower in Turkmenistan and the African monument erected in honor of decolonization.
Also in the top ten "horrors" noted the recently erected monument to Martin Luther King in the United States and two eccentric London monuments dedicated to Oscar Wilde and Michael Jackson.