Naked artist nails his private parts to ground and cuts off ear

An artist who nailed his own testicles to the ground in a protest against his country's authoritarian regime has emulated Vincent van Gogh - by cutting his ear off.

When Russian Petr Pavlenskiy hammered a large metal nail through his scrotum and into the cobblestones in front of Moscow's Red Square, it was part of a protest.

In the past, he's sewed up his lips and wrapped his body in in barbed wire.

The 30-year-old said the lips-sewing stunt, which he carried out in St Peterburg in 2012 had been to protest against the arrest of the band Pussy Riot.He is a supporter of the band.

However, he's yet to reveal why he stripped naked before slicing off his own ear with a kitchen knife in full view of passersby in Moscow.

In the latest bizarre incident, he was spotted sitting on a wall - stark naked - in the Russian capital.

He then pulled out a razor-sharp kitchen knife and lopped off part of his ear, causing blood to flow down, all over his nude body.

Minutes later, police arrived and recovered the knife, putting the artist in a headlock and dragging him away.

They said he had been taken to the nearby  Hospital.