Putin makes gift of Holocaust sculpture to Israel

JERUSALEM - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday presented Israel with a harrowing bronze sculpture which depicts the suffering of the Holocaust, during his historic visit to the Jewish state.
Haaretz newspaper had reported that the gift was originally offered to Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, but the institution turned it down out of concern for religious sensibilitiies due to its nude figurines.
Kremlin sources said only that the sculpture would sit in the palatial gardens of the official residency of Israeli President Moshe Katsav.
Crafted by Georgian sculptor Zurab Tseriteli, the two-and-a-half metre (eight foot) tall piece depicts six emaciated, naked figures, including a child, hunched behind barbed wire in a concentration camp.
Welcoming Putin, both Katsav and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon paid tribute to the former Soviet Union's Red Army in defeating Nazi forces during World War II and liberating death camps in which six million Jews perished.

04/28/2005 14:49 GMT