A huge, green, inflatable sculpture on a famous Paris square has raised a storm for its resemblance to a sex toy, with the artist attacked in the street. US artist Paul McCarthy told French newspaper Le Monde that his work entitled Tree had been inspired both by a sex toy and a Christmas tree. When he went to see it on Place Vendome, a man slapped his face before running away, the paper says. But social media is crackling with jokes about the 24m (79ft) inflatable. McCarthy, 69, whose previous installations have shocked viewers in the Netherlands and Switzerland, told Le Monde in an interview (in French) that Tree was an "abstract work" rooted in a joke about a sex toy.
