Two small fishing towns in Sardinia are locked in combat over an eel, reports ANSA.

The eel in question is an iron sculpture by Salvatore Garau who was born in Santa Giusta, on the west coast. He gave the sculpture, which represents an eel that has fallen to earth from Mars, to his native town and it is in the main piazza. The trouble is that at the moment it is only half an eel because it is not finished and the people who live in the town do not want it.

The former Mayor did all in his power to inaugurate the sculpture before the May elections, thinking that it would bring him more votes.
Instead, it brought him fewer votes and now the new Mayor has said that he agrees with the anti-sculpture protestors. Mayor Angelo Pinna says that he cannot have the sculpture – the tail of the eel – removed because it has been paid for by the Bank of Sardinia. But his administration will not authorise the second part of the sculpture, in which the artist intends to depict the head rising from a pond.

Now the inhabitants of Cabras, ten kilometres away and traditionally a rival of Santa Giusta, have entered the fray. They have sent a petition to Santa Giusta saying, “You keep the tail and we’ll take the head”. The inhabitants of Santa Giusta are not amused.