For the past couple of weeks, a two-ton aluminium cast woman’s hand has been showing skiers in St. Moritz the finger.

Flown 2,300 metres above sea-level by helicopter and placed atop the mountain known as Muottas Muragi, the sculpture stands over two metres high, looking out over the impressive mountain panorama of the Upper Engadine.

In what many will consider an obscene gesture, the sculpture depicts a delicate woman’s hand with middle finger extended, pointing towards the exclusive resort of St. Moritz.

“Reactions were very mixed,” the Swiss 24-year-old artist from Basel, Nikolai Winter, told news website Spiegel Online.

Winter finds women’s hands beautiful, and has made many sculptures on the subject. He maintains that the intention behind the Engadine sculpture was not to provoke. Instead, he says his creativity was inspired by “thematic contrasts”.

“[I]n today's world, this gesture is not unusual. I just wanted to pour it into a beautiful shape,” he told Spiegel Online.