Praying Hitler on display at Churchill's birthplace

An artist whose work "regularly defies good taste" has launched an exhibit featuring a praying Adolf Hitler at Sir Winston Churchill's birthplace.

Italian Maurizio Cattelan, known to some as the "prankster" of the art world, has brought a number of his provocative works to Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.

As well as the model of the Nazi Party leader rendered as a kneeling schoolboy, the installation also includes a statue of Pope John Paul II being hit by a meteorite.

But the crowning achievement may be a fully functioning 18-carat gold toilet, famously offered to US President Donald Trump in 2017.

Visitors will be free to use the palace's throne, but Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill has previously encouraged guests not to spend too long enjoying the luxury loo.

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Image caption, The model of Hitler as a kneeling schoolboy is named Him

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Image caption, The gold toilet, named America, has been interpreted as a comment on excessive wealth in the US. It made headlines in 2017 when New York's Guggenheim museum offered it to Donald Trump after refusing his request to borrow a work by Vincent Van Gogh. The White House's response is unknown

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Image caption, Maurizio Cattelan has built his career on evasion, trickery and subversion

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Image caption, "Victory Is Not An Option". A gigantic walkway made up of Union Jacks marks the approach to the palace

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Image caption, "Daddy, Daddy", which shows Disney character Pinocchio face-down in a fountain, is reminiscent of Banksy's 2015 Dismaland project

Image source, Leon Neal

Image caption, Cattelan is known as the "prankster" of the art world. Here is "La Nona Ora", a realistic model of Pope John Paul II being hit by a meteorite

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Image caption, Why this long face? "Novecento", a taxidermy horse suspended from the ceiling

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Image caption, Unitled is a miniature replica of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican

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Image caption, Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill, founder of the Blenheim Art Foundation, said he was "delighted" to welcome Cattelan's work to the 18th Century palace

The display by Cattelan, the sixth artist to have a solo exhibition at the palace, will last until 27 October.