For as a long as human history has known art, artists have often produced rather bizarre works. Most recently, a statue of an Ottoman prince taking a selfie while grabbing his sword in the Turkish city Amasya has been the topic of a lot of giggles.
The statue, which was revealed Saturday on the town’s riverbank, is now one of city's attractions for tourists, and naturally more double-selfies.
“We built it for a purely visual purpose. We thought it would draw attention,” Osman Akbaş, deputy mayor of Amasya, was quoted as saying by Al Arabiya .
The Turkish city is known for having hosted the Ottoman princes, or "shahzade," while they were being taught all there is to learn about ruling.
According to Akbaş, the statue does not represent a particular “shahzade.”
Most of responses to the unusual statue, from tourists and townspeople alike, have been rather positive.
“It certainly is very beautiful. It’s different,” one visitor commented, while another said “I don’t think it’s a bad idea. It’s just a joke.”
Yet it seems that even with jokes, haters will always hate.
It wasn’t long after the unveiling of the statue that it was vandalized, leaving the statue without a cellphone. The culprits remain unknown.
But, it wasn’t only the vandals who had hard feelings for selfie-statue. Ramis Topal, deputy to the Republican People’s Party, took to Twitter to share his opinion saying: “This is our government’s latest investment in Amasya: A selfie-taking Shahzade. Not a joke.”
Apparently, this left those in authority no choice but to appoint the statue with its personal guard!
Selfies: instigating strife wherever they are taken.