Titian's topless Venus in Minneapolis gets graffiti bra

With another new foot of snow on the ground, it's mighty cold around these parts. But a graffiti artist decided to help out: The topless Venus on a billboard for the new Minneapolis Institute of Arts' show show of works by Titian is now sporting a spraypaint bra... along with the word "Brr!" MIA staff, writes the LA Times (which first reported the story), is "is highly amused.”

(Via Secrets of the City.)

Update: Bob Collins at MPR's NewsCut makes a point I should've: The alteration is likely a PR gimmick. After all, the photos at the LA Times (and the local tabloid, which ran a piece on this too) were provided by the exhibition's marketing firm.

Update: MIA PR director Anne-Marie Wagener emails to state that it's not a publicity stunt:

[L]ast Friday I saw the 'new' billboard image that was sent to me by one of our staff and it went around the museum. I didn't send it to any media at all. It took off all on it's own through social media really. We couldn't have created such a stunt anyway as we can't put words/copy over images of art, it's not allowed, especially when the art work is owned by some else, as it is in this case. Art museums can never 'deface' art images. I thought at first that it had been photo shopped it was so 'perfect' and had someone in Marketing call Clear Channel and they confirmed that it had been graffitied. Whoever did it did a good job ;)