This is the latest piece of public art from Maurizio Cattelan. It is, as you can probably tell, a giant hand with middle finger extended, and it stands on a pedestal in front of the Italian stock exchange in Milan, pointing out towards the public. I read it as a commentary on the attitudes of the financial services industry towards the commonweal, but there's plenty of high-falutin' artspeak at Designboom if you want more context and a deeper interpretation.
What's really worth noting here, though, is that the city let it go up at all. Milan's public officials first refused the piece, but then finally agreed to display it for ten days during fashion week, saying "we want to be confirmed as the capital of contemporary art and we have to not only mediate but also accept what we do not like."
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