Nude Vienna photo-shoot falls just short of Euro 2008 target

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VIENNA (AFP) - Over 1,800 men and women posed nude for US photographer Spencer Tunick Sunday in Vienna's Ernst Happel stadium, less than a month before it hosts the European football championship final.

The photo-shoot, which lasted several hours amid warm weather, drew precisely 1,840 participants, although it fell short of the symbolic and "at least 2,008" Tunick had hoped to get, ahead of the Euro 2008 tournament.

The subjects of the artwork never made it onto the pitch but posed in the stands, as the newly refitted stadium was to be presented to the European football association on Monday.

The action was organised by Vienna's Kunsthalle museum as part of a cultural programme running alongside Euro 2008.

The participants were not paid, but were to receive signed pictures of the photo-shoot.

The photographs are also to be displayed at the Kunsthalle, starting June 23.

New York-born Tunick is famous for large-scale nude projects, having created several installations from Mexico City to the Netherlands, Barcelona and Newcastle.