Pope Benedict has condemned the display of a modern art sculpture portraying a crucified frog in Italy.

The one metre 30cm high wooden sculpture, by the late German artist Martin Kippenberger, shows a bright green frog nailed to a brown cross and holding a beer mug in one hand and an egg in the other.

Called Zuerst die Fuesse (Feet First), it wears a green loin cloth and is nailed through the hands and feet in the manner of Christ. Its green tongue hangs out of its mouth.

The board of the Museion museum in the northern city of Bolzano voted to keep the work on display, despite the Vatican calling for the piece of art to be removed.

Museum officials said the artist, who died in 1997, considered it a self portrait illustrating human angst.

The Vatican had written a letter of support in the pope's name to Franz Pahl, president of the regional government who opposed the sculpture.

Pahl, whose province is heavily Catholic, was so outraged by the sculpture of the pop-eyed amphibian that he went on a hunger strike to demand its removal and had to be hospitalised during the summer.

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