Prague- The creator of a controversial EU artwork, Czech artist David Cerny, failed his own humour test as he bashed a Czech newspaper for running a fictitious interview with him, a report said on Monday.

The Mlada Fronta Dnes daily ran on Saturday a fictitious interview with Cerny, which twists and elaborates on some of his real statements.

Editor-in-chief Robert Casensky said in the Monday edition that the newspaper wanted to try out Cerny's sense of humour after the artist put the sense of humour of the European Union to the test.

"You are not a work of art, you are a news daily," the paper cited Cerny as saying in reaction to the interview.

Cerny, who said that the interview was "fully untrue," chiefly protested fake answers that could harm Vice-Premier for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra, the daily said.

In one such reply, Cerny says that Vondra knew about the hoax longer than he admitted and promised the artist another public job.

The 8-ton piece entitled Entropa, which pokes fun at national taboos and stereotypes, resembles a plastic scale model kit of an EU map.

It was commissioned by the Czech Republic to mark the country's EU presidency, which lasts until June 30.

Cerny, who made his name through provocation, tricked the government in Prague into believing that Entropa was a collaboration by artists representing all 27 member states. But he concocted the piece with two associates.

The work, which is installed at a Brussels building where the bloc's summits take place, has enraged Bulgaria, which Cerny depicted as a Turkish squat toilet.

Czech officials apologized for the portrayal and cloaked the segment. dpa( )