Hello from my brain, which has been thinking about the carving and castration and replacement of the testicles on Oscar Wilde's tomb in Paris' Père Lachaise cemetery. Here's a short thread about scandalously large balls.

The tomb was sculpted by Jacob Epstein, known for his advocacy of "uninhibited sexual expression in art and life," like these sculptures of "Maternity."

Epstein's giant nude sculptures made in 1907 for the facade of the London headquarters of the British Medical Association were instantly scandalous. One priest said Epstein was trying to "convert London into a Fiji Island, where there may be some excuse for want of drapery."

(In 1935, the building's new tenant, on the excuse that parts were in danger of falling on the street, hacked the "projections" from his sculptures off, including most of the genitals -
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-jacob-epstein-1061/lost-art-jacob-epstein)

In 1908, during the height of the scandal about his naked figures in London, Epstein was commissioned to make Wilde's tomb. He planned a flying angel inspired by Assyrian, Egyptian, and Indian sculpture.

Epstein carved the tomb in England, but when he shipped it to France for installations, he ran into problems. The head of Père Lachaise swathed the angel's genitals in plaster and demanded Epstein remove or cover them. Here's the best pics I could find of the... problem area.

Honestly... meh? But I digress.

Epstein refused to modify his work, and the tomb stood covered by a tarp and guarded by a policeman for... two years. Finally, Wilde's executor persuaded Epstein to allow the tomb to be unveiled by adding a bronze butterfly to cover its genitals.

How a butterfly gently caressing some balls is less scandalous than just balls is... ok, whatever. Anyway...

The butterfly soon disappeared. (Legend is that occultist Aleister Crowley, who presided over the unveiling, took it and wore it around Paris as either a necklace or a cod-piece, which is very on-brand for ol' Aleister).

Wilde's tomb soon became a pilgrimage site for devotees and those celebrating his queer lifestyle. Visitors kissed the tomb, added graffiti, and touched the balls.

One observer in the '50s noted "the extraordinarily polished, shiny quality of the angel’s pendulous testicles by comparison with the dull, grainy texture of the rest of the tomb" and claimed that "their unusual appearance was due to..."

"... the continual touching, stroking and caressing by the hands of the homosexual admirers in worship and reverence to those parts of Oscar Wilde for which they believe he was martyred."

Some time in the '60s, the angel's genitals were smashed off. Urban legend has them being used as a paperweight in the Père Lachaise office, but who knows. The tomb remains with only a little stump (and an ugly barricade to try to prevent the smooching).

In 2003, artists Leon Johnson, John Schmor, Rebecca Scheer, and Jody Ake performed a ceremony, temporarily attaching a sterling silver prosthetic. http://www.scheersilversmith.com/wilde 

In conclusion: everyone either loves or freaks out about Oscar Wilde's balls, even after he's dead and they aren't even his.

Some of my sources: http://www.branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=ellen-crowell-oscar-wildes-tomb-silence-and-the-aesthetics-of-queer-memorial and Dario Gamboni's The Destruction of Art.