[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2261909658-e1775229433526.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tGerman sculptor and illustrator Jacques Tilly was convicted on charges of spreading false information about the Russian military and insulting religious feelings, after creating carnival displays mocking Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Associated Pressreported Thursday.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe 62-year-old artist has been designing and building floats for D\u00fcsseldorf\u2019s Carnival parade for nearly 40 years. His floats, like many German carnival floats, often mock political figures, both from Germany and abroad.<\/p>\n
\n\tOne of his most recent floats depicted the Russian president in a bathtub filled with blood and painted to resemble the Ukraine flag. Another featured Putin biting into a map of Ukraine decorated with the words, \u201cChoke on it!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tA Moscow court sentenced Tilly to 8.5 years in prison earlier this week. However, as Tilly is based in Germany, the sentencing was in absentia<\/em>, and Tilly doesn\u2019t seem too bothered.<\/p>\n \n\tIn an interview with dpa, a German news agency, he derided the proceedings as an \u201cauthoritarian regime\u2019s proganda trial.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s very likely that the verdict against me has already been determined. I assume it will be many, many years of prison camp,\u201d Tilly said. \u201cIt is an attack on our freedoms. On freedom of opinion, on freedom of the press, on freedom of satire, on jesters\u2019 freedom. And that is how it is understood here in Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tTilly last made news in 2019 when he created a custom float for Brexit protesters in London depicting Dominic Cummings, then-chief adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as a demonic figure holding a puppet Johnson. \u201cDemonic Cummings\u201d was written across the figure\u2019s head, with \u201cMaster of Muppets\u201d scrawled along the side. It also featured a Union Jack mustache styled to look like Hitler\u2019s and a Nazi-style red arm band that read \u201cGet Brexit Done.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAt the time, Phil Jeans, of EU Flag Mafia, which commissioned the piece, told PA News Agency<\/em>it takes Tilly two weeks to draw up the plans and build the model for his floats.<\/p>\n \n\tOver the years, Tilly has also mocked President Donald Trump, UK Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/german-artist-sentenced-prison-russia-after-mocking-putin-1234779836\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2261909658-e1775229433526.jpg?w=1024″] German sculptor and illustrator Jacques Tilly was convicted on charges of spreading false information about the Russian military and insulting religious feelings, after creating carnival displays mocking Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Associated Pressreported Thursday. The 62-year-old artist has been designing and building floats for D\u00fcsseldorf\u2019s Carnival parade for nearly 40 years. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1864463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1864463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1864463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1864463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1864463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1864463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1864463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}