An Italian politician whose pet peeve is a statue of a crucified frog says he now has the pope himself on his side.

Franz Pahl told Italy's ANSA news service Wednesday that Pope Benedict XVI had sent him a letter sharing his views that the art piece on display at a museum in Bolanzo is an insult.

ANSA said the pontiff wrote earlier this month that the sculpture ''has injured the religious feeling of many people."

The meter-high work by German artist Martin Kippenberger, who died in 1997, is not particularly dignified, the report said. It features a hapless frog nailed to a cross with an egg, or perhaps a potato, in one hand and a beer stein in the other.

Pahl went on a hunger strike this summer to protest the statue.

Officials at the Museion museum moved the frog to an out-of-the-way corner, but won't get rid of it altogether. They call it a self-portrait of the artist and not a religious commentary.

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