During a showing of Serrano 's works at the National Gallery of Victoria ( NGV ) in 1997 , then Archbishop George Pelli tried to get the Supreme Court of Victoria to stop the gallery from showing the work . During a retrospective of Serrano 's work at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1997 , the then Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne , George Pell , sought an injunction from the Supreme Court of Victoria to restrain the National Gallery of Victoria from publicly displaying Piss Christ , which was not granted .