Authorities in Milan, Italy, have banned a billboard featuring an all-female version of Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper.

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The French fashion house Marithe et Francois Girbaud said the billboard publicity campaign was inspired by Dan Brown's novel "The Da Vinci Code.

The billboard ad features women surrounding what seems to be a female Christ, with the only male sitting bare-chested on a woman's lap in a provocative pose, reported the BBC Sunday.

Italy's advertising watchdog said the billboard's use of Christian symbols -- including a dove and a chalice -- "inevitably recalls the very foundations of the Christian faith."

The billboard campaign has not evoked controversy in either Paris or New York.