1. Maurizio Cattelan – The Ninth Hour, 1999
How do you offend 1.2 billion Roman Catholics world-wide? by dropping a meteorite on the Pope of course. Maurizio Cattelan created a life-size sculpture that features Pope John Paul II splayed out after a meteorite had just fallen from the sky and pinned him quite unceremoniously to the ground. The work subsequently drew the ire of church officials when it went on display at the Venice Biennele in 2001. It is understandably one of the artist’s most famous artworks, titled La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour), and was created in 1999. The installation offended many, seeming to suggest that an ‘act of God’ could befall anyone, even the Bishop of Rome and the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church, or perhaps that God was not behind such events at all, and didn’t exist. The piece was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London as part of the prestigious ‘Apocalypse’ show, and was later sold at Christie’s for $886,000.