LONDON (CNS): A British wax exhibit that featured soccer star David Beckham as St Joseph and Beckman’s wife, former Spice Girls singer Victoria Adams, as Mary, was closed after a vandal attacked it.
Staff at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum, one of London’s most successful tourist attractions, said the man “extensively damaged” the models of Beckham and Adams.
The vandal smashed his fists repeatedly into the soft wax faces of the models on December 12.
He fled the museum before he could be captured.
The display was erected early this month after 300 people were asked in an October poll which celebrities they would most like to see in the scene.
Museum officials said it would not re-open because repairs were unlikely to be completed before the scheduled closure date of January 3.
Other models in the attraction included US President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Duke of Edinburgh as the Three Wise Men, actors Samuel L. Jackson and Hugh Grant as shepherds, and pop star Kylie Minogue as an angel. Jesus was represented by a plastic doll.
On December 11, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster criticised the wax scene in an interview with the BBC.
“To have a very special part of Christianity depicted in this way and its most precious symbol, which is the coming of God into the world in Jesus Christ, seems to me to be not just disrespectful to Christians, it is also disrespectful to the heritage of Britain and also does damage to the culture of this country,” the cardinal said.
