A controversial painting on Capitol Hill depicting a police officer as a pig will be removed after sparking a scuffle between Democratic and Republican lawmakers, the architect of the Capitol Stephen Ayers told Fox News Friday.
Ayers determined the painting violates the House Building Commission's rules and will be removed Tuesday after the federal holiday.
Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash.,the former Sheriff of King County, Washington, wrote to Ayers demanding the artwork be removed, and arguing the painting “is in clear violation of the Suitability Guidelines outlined in the official rules for the competition.”
In particular, Reichert asserted that the rules bar art that depicts “subjects of contemporary political controversy or a sensationalistic or gruesome nature.”
Democratic and Republican lawmakers repeatedly passed it back and forth in a growing tit-for-tat. Most recently, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., took it down late Tuesday afternoon and brought it to the office of Democratic Rep. Lacy Clay. The painting came from his Missouri district.
Clay once again hung it up, saying he was "an expert at hanging artwork."
Rohrabacher called the painting an “insult to all police.”
The painting was hung last June in a tunnel between the Cannon and House Office Buildings at the Capitol.
Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
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