A sexualised mural in Sydney featuring former prime minister Tony Abbott and Cardinal George Pell celebrating same-sex marriage has been defaced hours after it was completed.
Sydney artist Scott Marsh painted The Happy Ending behind Newtown's Botany View Hotel showing Mr Abbott dressed as a bride with one hand down the rainbow pants of a shirtless Cardinal Pell.
The work was initially splattered with white paint on Thursday and on Instagram Marsh joked the "collaboration", which he claimed was with the church, had overemphasised the cardinal's "excitement" at the historic 'yes' vote.
A video posted online later showed several men covering the mural with a roller and black paint as onlookers challenged them.
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"It's offensive to the general public," one of the men says.
A woman replies: "You know that it's Newtown, right?"
The men argue while they don't live in the notoriously progressive inner-west, they should be free to visit without having to see offensive imagery.
"So don't look at it," the woman says.
One of the men insists the painting constitutes pornography.
"There's a man's hands in another man's pants," he says.
"Open your eyes, woman."
The hotel's Facebook page was flooded with negative reviews following the mural's completion.
"Totally unacceptable to a well known place," one man wrote.
"Disgusting!!!"
By Friday afternoon, dozens of supporters had left positive reviews commending the hotel's actions.
Griffin Hall, who's worked at the bar for about three years, said they'd also been receiving "a lot" of phone calls from people who found the painting disturbing.
But those who were complaining didn't live in the area, he added.
"It's an absolute shame," Mr Hall told AAP.
He said he couldn't understand why someone would want to "protect" Cardinal Pell.
"At the same time I understand how people are arguing that it is a disturbing image and they wanted it down," he said.
"But that's the point of free speech, right?"
NSW Police said no complaints had been made about the incident.
