Prime minister’s decree comes after series of amateurish sculptures sprang up across country to be met with anger and scorn

In response to a series of questionable statues that have sprung up in Egypt, the prime minister has banned all public artworks not approved by the ministry of culture.

Sherif Ismail issued the decree after a controversial statue was unveiled in the eastern city of Sohag.

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Depicting a martyred soldier embracing his mother, the sculpture was met with anger last week, with many people suggesting that it portrayed sexual harassment.

Sohag’s governor has since ordered an investigation and said the provincial government should have been consulted before the work, which cost 250,000 Egyptian pounds (£21,150), was built. It has since undergone “modifications”, according to reports.

Last year, a statue in the north-east town of Samalut attracted public scorn for its ill-conceived depiction of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti, which quickly earned the nickname “Frankenstein”.

The interpretation was so provocative that Samalut authorities decided to tear it down in July 2015 following widespread ridicule on social media.

One Twitter user, @mazenalsarhan, wrote: “I believe in the pharaonic curse and I hope it casts its spells on all of those who were involved and agreed on distorting the beauty of all beauties #nefertiti.”

ثائر ل.. حين ميسره (@ramy805) #نفرتيتي لأصحاب قوة الملاحظة ما هو الفرق بين الصورتين ؟؟ pic.twitter.com/XhvfWHbstQ

Another memorably lacklustre statue was that of Col Urābī Pasha, the leader of Egypt’s armed resistance movement against British forces in the late 1800s, which was erected in the Nile delta region of Sharqia.

The green sculpture of Col Urābī Pasha. Photograph: Mada Masr

Also widely mocked, the work depicts a green likeness of Urābī riding a cartoonish white horse. Last month, municipal authorities in the village of Hurriyet Razna, the colonel’s birthplace, ordered the repainting of the statue.

Privately owned news outlet Youm7 has reported that local authorities could impose penalties on the statue’s builders and will move “to restore [the square in which it is located to] its aesthetic appearance”.

Elsewhere, along the Cairo-Ismailia desert highway, a sculpture of a bronze male athlete flexing his biceps was recently painted brown, with white paint used for his hair and swimsuit.

Egyptian social media was quickly filled with derision about the botched paint job, with some users suggesting that it looked like an ageing man wearing white pants.

An unusual statue commemorating the composer and singer Mohamed Abdel Wahab in his birthplace of Bab al-Shareya was also criticised for more closely resembling the former president Hosni Mubarak.

The fibreglass statue was later damaged after falling off its base in 2014, apparently after several pro-government banners were tied around its neck.

People suggested that this statue of the composer and singer Mohamed Abdel Wahab more closely resembled Hosni Mubarak. Photograph: Mada Masr

A version of this article first appeared on Mada Masr