Organizers of a "forbidden art" exhibition in Moscow have been convicted of fueling national and religious hatred for displaying such works of art as Jesus Christ with the head of Mickey Mouse.

Yury Samodurov, former head of the Sakharov Museum that staged the show, and Andrei Yerofeyev, a former curator at the Tretyakov gallery, were convicted of "committing acts aimed at inciting national hatred and strife," according to RIA Novosti.

The two men, who staged the exhibit in 2006 to fight censorship of art in Russia, could have been jailed for up to five years. They were fined around $11,000.

Last week, 13 prominent Russian artists called on President Dimitry Medvedev to stop the trial, saying a guilty verdict would be a sentence "for the whole of Russian contemporary art."

Last month, in a letter to the church, Yerofeyev apologized if the show unintentionally offended Christians, the BBC reports.

Oleg Kassin, a representative of Council of the People, which filed the complaint with the court, told the AFP news agency that he had been disgusted by the exhibition which contained "anti-Christian" images.

"If you like expressing yourself freely, do it at home, invite some close friends," he said. But when it's on public display "especially if it contains insults, it's no longer art but a provocation."

(Posted by Doug Stanglin)