Officials Erase Historic Berlin Wall Mural (Honecker Kissing Brezhnev)

Der Spiegel Online ^ | March 27, 2009 | Malte Göbel

[Loyalist]

One of the most famous paintings on the Berlin Wall, depicting Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev kissing his East German counterpart Erich Honecker, has been destroyed by the authorities. The artist is fuming, but he says he will paint a new image.

It was an image that went around the world. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev leaning in to kiss his East German counterpart Erich Honecker, a larger-than-life painting daubed onto a remnant of the Berlin Wall. Before long it became one of the most famous pictures on Berlin's East Side Gallery, the mural bedecked Wall which is now Berlin's longest remaining stretch of the former frontier of the Cold War.

But then, without warning, the image was removed, leaving an old slab of grey concrete - and an irate artist. "My picture is ruined!" raged 48-year-old Russian artist Dmitri Vrubel.

[Loyalist]

Here's the picture that inspired the painting.

I'm surprised the homo-nazis haven't jumped all over the German authorities for "homophobia". Oh wait, maybe they will:

Renovation of the East Side Gallery is expected to be completed by Nov. 9, 2009, the day marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Dmitri Vrubel, meanwhile, said he doesn't want to disrupt the effort. Instead he's considering paiting a new kissing scene. Obama and Putin maybe? "No that would be too contemporary," he said. Instead Brezhnev and Honecker's embrace will remain the motif, but he may give it a different perspective. "This wasn't actually intended as a political image," said Vrubel. "It's about love."

[A.A. Cunningham]

He should paint another one in Plains, Georgia.

[fso301]

What isn’t clear to me is if the painting was done before the wall fell or after.

[CORedneck]

It would be funny to get some private property and put up the mural. In addition get some private property where Obama bows to the Saudi king.