Sickening portrayal of Jesus pinned to a dartboard presented as art in university library

The 'artwork' has since been removed.

An appalling portrayal of Jesus plastered to a dartboard was posted up as artwork inside the Art Library at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The "art piece," titled "Vitruvian Man," shows Jesus nailed to the dartboard with darts.

"This is currently displayed in the Art Library on College Ave. It is surprising that a state university would allow this," expressed Rutgers student, Natalie Caruso on her Facebook page, showing an image of the piece. "I asked them to take it down because I found it disrespectful and they refused. How is this acceptable!?"

Following more complaints from other students and university alumni, college officials were forced to take action regarding the controversial "artwork."

According to Jessica Pellien, director of communications at Rutgers University Libraries, "Vitruvian Man" was removed from the art exhibit because "it did not meet Rutgers University Libraries policy, which requires art exhibitions and their pieces to be based on university events, curricular offerings and topics of interest to the university community."

However, before it was removed entirely, the library tried getting away with simply moving the piece to a "less prominent location," according to NJ.com. Questions of how it made it to the wall in the first place, if it did not meet the library requirements, remain unanswered.

"The art exhibit inside a campus library at Rutgers University was sickening - Jesus crucified on a dartboard," conservative commentator Todd Starnes wrote, according to The Blaze. "I've often wondered why the artistic class seems compelled to denigrate and desecrate the Sacred."

While the mass consensus appears to be that the "artwork" is sickening and appalling, some have come forward to defend the artistic expression.

"Good art is offensive," stated one man named Davide Awad. Others proposed the idea that maybe it wasn't meant to be offensive to Christians at all; maybe the "image of Christ on a dartboard could actually be meant to showcase how Jesus was treated."

Although the artist has not been identified, and the reasons behind Jesus featured on a dartboard are not entirely clear, the "Vitruvian Man" has found it's 15 minutes of fame and has got people talking and debating on a deeper level. Perhaps, that was the artist's intentions in the first place. Do you see Jesus on a dartboard as an attack on the religion, or is it more likely a portrayal of how Christians are still persecuted today, even in the most modern of times?

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