Most Scandalous Statue in DC

Washington, DC

Unveiled in 1923, "Nymph and Fawn" scandalized the moral gatekeepers of Washington, who labeled it tawdry, repulsive, and a blasphemy. The glided sculpture of a nude maiden is, surprisingly, a memorial to a DC lawyer Joseph Darlington. His daughters wanted something that conveyed his compassion, not his legal skills, so artist C. Paul Jennewein created a sculpture that he felt represented the ideal of human tenderness. And since it had been approved by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which wanted "something artistically beautiful," the statue stayed.

Jennewein managed to upset DC prudes again, many years after his own death. He had sculpted another bare-breasted Washington statue, Spirit of Justice, which in 2002 was so offensive to Attorney General John Ashcroft that he ordered it hidden behind curtains.