MILAN—Architect Daniel Libeskind and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi have become engaged in a war of words that some fear may cause Berlusconi to withdraw permission for Libeskind's Milan tower, the Independent reports via the Art Newspaper.

Berlusconi first made comments about the plan for Libeskind's tower, a dramatically curved skyscraper that will sit between buildings designed by Zaha Hadid and Arata Isozaki at the Fiera Milano site, to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. "Milan is full of people with crooked members," he said. "There will simply be one more in need of Viagra."

The architect took offense to the comments, and responded in an interview in the same paper, saying, "In Fascist Italy, everything that was not 'straight' was considered 'perverse art'... As an American and Jew brought up in Poland, I find Berlusconi abominable. His concept of nationalism, of closing borders and denying what is different, is repugnant."

Some people, including Vittorio Sgarbi, former culture adviser to Milan, now suggest that Berlusconi will not let the planned art museum and office tower go forward without an apology. A spokeswoman for the Fiera Milano developers said that as far as she knows, the project is still "on track."