BERLIN (JTA) — A Nuremberg court will allow an art gallery to display garden gnomes giving a Heil Hitler salute.
The state prosecutor announced Wednesday that there is no cause to sue artist Ottoman Horl and gallery owner Erwin Weigl for the use of anti-constitutional symbols.
An anonymous complaint about the exhibit had launched a probe.
In "this specific case," Chief Prosecutor Wolfgang Trag stressed, the raised arm was clearly part of an artistic action designed to be critical of the Nazi regime. But "the Hitler greeting remains banned in general," he told reporters.
Trag added that he was concerned about the potential abuse of Horl’s small gold-colored statues should the artist sell them and that each case would have to be judged for itself.
The story about the gnomes drew worldwide media attention. Horl said he received many new orders for the statue.
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