South Africa's government has ordered sculptors to remove a bronze rabbit they hid in the ear of a Nelson Mandela statue, unveiled after the former president's death last month.
It wanted to "restore dignity back to the statue", a spokesman told the BBC.
The sculptors reportedly inserted the rabbit as a trademark signature and to denote the haste with which they had to complete the statue.
Rabbit in the Afrikaans language is "haas", which also means haste.
"We don't think it's appropriate because Nelson Mandela never had a rabbit on his ear," Mogomotsi Mogodiri, the spokesman for the Department of Arts and Culture, told the BBC's Focus on Africa radio programme.
"We'd want people to see that statue as a symbol of hope, not about something like a rabbit."
Mr Mandela, who died at the age of 95, was widely acclaimed for his role in fighting white minority rule and promoting reconciliation after being elected South Africa's first black president in 1994.
'No trouser signature allowed'
The nine-metre (30ft) bronze statue was unveiled on 16 December, a day after Mr Mandela was buried.
It stands at the union Buildings, the government headquarters in the capital, Pretoria.
Mr Mogodiri said the sculptors had apologised for any offence caused to the government and Mr Mandela's family by placing the rabbit in the statue's right ear.
"Discussions are on-going about when the rabbit will be removed. Government wants it removed as soon as possible to restore dignity back to the statue," he said.
The sculptors, Andre Prinsloo and Ruhan Janse van Vuuren, said they had added the rabbit to the statue after the department refused to allow them to engrave their signatures on the trousers of the statue, South Africa's Beeld newspaper reported.
They said it also represented the tight deadline they work under.
"The time factor was big and at times we had to work hard," Mr Prinsloo is quoted as saying.
He said the "small symbol" was hidden in the ear and it did not take anything away from the statue.
"You need a long lens or binoculars to see it," he said.
"During the moulding process a lot of people had seen the statue up close and nobody noticed it."
Mr Mogodiri said the sculptors had never asked for permission to put their signatures on the statue, and the government was "taken aback" by their claim that permission had been denied.
"Nothing of that sort happened. If a request was made, we would have considered it," he said.
Mr Mandela died on 5 December after battling a recurring lung infection.
英国广播公司1月23日报道，南非政府要求雕塑家移除“暗藏”在南非前总统曼德拉雕像耳朵中的铜兔。
南非文化部发言人莫葛莫斯·莫葛迪瑞说，“因为曼德耳朵上拉从来没有过一只兔子，我们认为这种做法是不合适的。”
“我们想让人把雕像看作希望的象征，而不是兔子一类的东西。”
享年95岁的曼德拉1994年当选为南非首位黑人总统，因反对少数白人统治及倡导民族和解受到广泛称赞。
在曼德拉下葬的第二天也就是12月16日，这座9米高的铜像亮相，矗立在政府总部比勒陀利亚联合大厦旁。雕塑造型为曼德拉伸开双臂，寓意拥抱所有的南非人。
莫葛迪瑞称，雕塑家已经就雕塑右耳中的兔子对政府和曼德拉家人所造成的冒犯进行道歉。
“我们正在讨论什么时候来移除兔子。政府希望尽快移除，恢复雕像的尊严。”他说。
雕塑家安德烈·普林斯罗和罗翰··伍伦称，他们加上兔子的目的是因为文化部拒绝了他们在雕像上留下自己签名的请求。此外，兔子也代表雕塑工作很匆忙。
普林斯罗说，“这个小的标志”藏在耳朵里，需用长镜头或望远镜才能看到。“在制作过程中，许多人都近距离看到过雕塑，没有人注意到。”
莫葛迪瑞称雕塑家从来没有要求过把他们的签名放在雕塑上，政府对他们留签名遭到拒绝的说法“感到吃惊”。“此类事情从来没有发生过。如果之前确有请求，我们会认真考虑的，”他说。
