The city has been ordered to restore millions of dollars in public funding to the Brooklyn Museum of Art, in a flap over an exhibit which includes a controversial depiction of the Virgin Mary.
U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon granted the museum's bid for a preliminary injunction against the city, ruling the museum "has established irreparable harm and a likelihood of success on its First Amendment claim. The order blocks Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and other city officials from trying to punish the museum or otherwise retaliate.
The exhibit, "Sensation," including an image of the Virgin Mary and smatterings of elephant dung on the work, prompting Giuliani to cut the museum's public funding and triggering a month-long flap over whether the mayor was playing censor with the museum.
