Virgin in a Condom and Te Papa: 25 Years On

One of Aotearoa New Zealand's greatest art controversies was caused by a disproportionately tiny 105-millimeter-high assemblage by Tania Kovats, Virgin in a Condom (1992) (see Figure 1). It featured in the British Council touring exhibition Pictura Britannica: Art from Britain, held at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa), Wellington, from 1 March to 26 April 1998, opening just fifteen days after the museum itself. Thirty-three thousand people signed a Catholic Communications Office petition demanding the Virgin's removal. Thousands of phone calls, many abusive, bombarded Te Papa's Enquiry Centre. The display case was vandalized twice and a nearby visitor host assaulted. The controversy was repeatedly televised, culminating in a TV3 debate. Column meters of press coverage included a Sunday Star-Times (Auckland) article and 250 letters in Wellington newspapers alone. The BBC World Service Focus on Faith made the controversy its lead item (Stocker 2021: 81–82). Hence, critic Justin Paton warned in his New Zealand Listener article: “Yes, this is another article devoted to a certain religious statue sheathed in a certain birth-control device, but do not change the channel yet” (Paton 1998: 42).