Head of German art fair Documenta resigns over anti-Semitism

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The director of a famous The German art exhibition stopped in a row because of an artwork condemned as anti-Semitic.

The Documenta 15 exhibition at Kassel briefly included a mural showing a soldier with a pig's head and a Star of David.

The mural also depicted a figure with fangs, sidelocks in an Orthodox Jewish style and a hat marked "SS". It was made by an Indonesian art group.

There was an uproar soon after the show opened last month. Director Sabine Schormann has now resigned.

She apologized for not acknowledging the anti-Semitism of the mural. An interim successor is to be named, with the art fair continuing until September 25.

The scandal is particularly sensitive in Germany due to the genocide of the Nazi Germany against the Jews in the 20th Century, known as the Holocaust.

Documenta takes place every five years in Kassel and is considered a leading showcase for modern art, such as the Venice Biennale.

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Documenta's supervisory board expressed its "deep consternation" that during the opening weekend "clearly anti-Semitic motives were exposed".