MOSCOW, December 10 - RAPSI. State Hermitage Museum head Mikhail Piotrovsky has requested that the St. Petersburg Prosecutor General's Office deal with accusations by local residents deriding a recent exhibition by Jake and Dinos Chapman as blasphemous.

The exhibition, entitled Jake & Dinos Chapman: The End of Fun, consists of nine aquarium-like displays containing small plastic human figures.

Most of these are in Nazi uniform and are part of a hellscape scene of violence, all killing each other.

In addition, the artists' works feature Christian symbols, a crucified Ronald McDonald and grotesque Boschian characters.

The museum's director said that the checks which the prosecutor's office is forced to hold substantially hamper the work of the museum. He also suggested that many letters can be written by mentally unsound individuals.

He said that it is up to the museum to distinguish between art and blasphemy.

The Chapman brothers have already apologized to bewildered visitors and the prosecutor's office. BBC Russia reported that they were disappointed to be accused of extremism by religious groups, and they pledged to never set foot in Russia again.