David Cerny is one of the country's most original and provocative visual artists.
His work includes giant black babies that crawl up Prague's Zizkov TV tower, and the Pink Tank a memorial to the liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1945.
However his latest work, "Shark", is causing hackles to rise.
"Shark" is a sculpture of a life-size Saddam Hussein in underpants with his hands tied behind his back, floating in a large glass tank filled with the embalming fluid formaldehyde.
The sculpture was supposed to be exhibited as part of this April's Beaufort 2006 Modern Arts Festival, in the Belgian town of Middelkerke.
However, Michel Landuyt the mayor of Middelkerke has banned it. He claims that it's far too provocative.
Isn't that the point of "cutting edge" art?
He is basing his decision on the furore over the Danish cartoons.
Landuyt told Radio Prague there are several reasons why the sculpture is inappropriate:
"Families with children pass by the square that it was to stand on and some of them may not have taken it too well.
The other thing that bothers me is that the exhibit portrays an almost deformed human being, a real person, who is still alive.
He is in trial but should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. And lastly, I don't want to provoke people... or a certain group of people."
Good art is provocative and thought provoking, the bland chocolate box art beloved of dictators and the repressed does nothing for society.
David Cerny decided to make the sculpture of Saddam Hussein, after he witnessed the aftermath of the Iraqi dictator's reign during a week-long stay in Baghdad.
He is quoted as saying:
"I don't think that a wave of censorship has hit us but what is worrying is that it is now affecting the everyday lives of the ordinary citizens of this continent."
The sculpture will most likely be exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, in the nearby city of Oostende.
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