A controversial art installation targeting Hollywood's elite academy of actors and directors has caused a stir.

In light of the upcoming Academy Awards, a giant Oscars statuette snorting lines of cocaine was erected on Hollywood Boulevard on Thursday, reports CBS Los Angeles. Entitled "Hollywood's Best Party," the life-size golden Oscar statuette is positioned on its hands and knees, using a rolled-up hundred dollar bill to snort lines of a white coke-like powder. The statue was featured on a red-carpet pedestal close by the Dolby Theatre, where the Academy Awards will be held on Sunday.

However, the provocative statute was only on display for a short time before someone alerted authorities and an official from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce ordered it to be removed at 11:40 a.m. on Friday, reports the Huffington Post.

As a result, a security team working for Plastic Jesus disassembled the piece to avoid conflict.

Plastic Jesus, the anonymous Los Angeles street artist behind the art piece, said he created the statue in order to shine a light on the problem of drug abuse in the entertainment industry.

The artist also said he created the fiberglass figure "to bring attention to LA's cocaine addiction. Too many people will head off after the show and indulge in coke."

"It's time Hollywood and the USA started talking about drugs. The current drug war is not working. In 2014 cocaine outsold Coca-Cola," he said.

During an interview with KCAL9, Plastic Jesus suggested the piece is reflective of a problem that most of the world and Hollywood know very well.

"We often hear about it when a high-profile celebrity perhaps goes into rehab," he said. "People like directors, producers, hair and make-up people, electricians, sound guys and so on, these people don't get the care, the treatment that the high-profile people can access."

Last year, Plastic Jesus created an 8-foot-tall depiction of an Oscar statuette injecting heroin into its arm using a syringe needle and a belt, titled "Hollywood's Best Kept Secret." Subsequently, the installation set off a media firestorm as it followed the death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died weeks earlier from a heroin overdose.

Related