ST. PETERSBURG, April 3 (RIA Novosti) – British artist Adele Morse, the creator of the stuffed Stoned Fox that inspired thousands of Internet memes across the world, brought her most famous piece of taxidermy to Russia's second-largest city of St. Petersburg on Wednesday.
The Stoned Fox, which became an Internet celebrity in the fall of 2012 after it was sold on eBay for £330, will be on display in a glass case at Geometria café in downtown St. Petersburg until April 7.
Morse explained that her stay in Russia will be short due to visa problems and said she would consider proposals to exhibit the Stoned Fox in Moscow and other Russian cities as well.
Morse also said she plans to give lectures on modern art at the café and to take the Stoned Fox to St. Petersburg’s Kunstkamera Museum, known for its haphazard collection of incoherent rarities.
The Stoned Fox’s current owner, music promoter Mike Boorman from Manchester, who is accompanying Morse on her trip to Russia, said he has no intention to sell it so far, adding that the price would be very high if he did decide to part with the fox.
The stuffed creature, whom Morse described on eBay as “a young red fox made to look as a human,” prompted thousands of Photoshop memes, featuring it with Vladimir Putin, Josef Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, Barack Obama, Marylin Monroe, Keanu Reeves and other celebrities.
Russian Internet users have also sent the Stoned Fox on a space flight and a ride in the Moscow subway. Some of the most famous montages will be displayed at Geometria café, which was packed with journalists when the fox arrived.
However, the local branch of the Communist Party, animal rights activists and a prominent St. Petersburg MP protested the Stoned Fox’s visit.
United Russia Deputy Vitaly Milonov, author of recent controversial "anti-gay" legislation, said exhibiting the fox was propagating animal cruelty, while the communists, unhappy with the creature being displayed alongside Bolshevik revolution leader Lenin, dubbed it “mockery of Russia” and called Morse an "unfriendly emissary from England."
