David Černý's Pink Tank

One night in April 1991, a Soviet war memorial became the stage for one of the boldest acts of artistic rebellion in post-communist Europe. A massive military tank standing in Kinsky Square, at the foot of Petrin Hill, had been painted shocking pink. Art student David Černý and his friends climbed onto the Monument to Soviet Tank Crews under cover of darkness on April 27. Armed with buckets of bright pink paint, they transformed the green military metal and added a large middle finger sculpture to the turret. The 23 year old signed his work ""David Černý and the Neostunners."" The tank had stood in the square since 1945 to honor Soviet soldiers who liberated the city from Nazi occupation. But for most locals, it represented something far more painful. The 1968 Soviet invasion that crushed the Prague Spring reform movement remained a bitter memory. The number 23 painted on the tank seemed cruelly ironic: 1945 plus 23 equals 1968, the year Soviet tanks rolled in to end democratic hopes. Černý was arrested for hooliganism and Soviet officials demanded immediate action. The army rushed to repaint the tank green within days. Yet members of parliament defiantly repainted it pink again to protest the artist's arrest, turning the monument into a symbol of resistance against authoritarian power.