SHANGHAI—The organizers of ShContemporary, Shanghai's much anticipated contemporary art fair, have banned Belgian artist Wim Delvoye's planned exhibition of tattooed pigs, reports Bloomberg.

Workers dismantled the sty that would have held the eight pigs, tattooed with the Louis Vuitton logo and Walt Disney characters, this morning at 11:30, said Yu Tiantian of Xin Beiing Gallery, Delvoye's dealer. The fair opens tomorrow.

Yu wouldn't say if the government had ordered the ban, but said that the gallery plans to recover $2,600 in costs from the fair organizers, who declined to comment.

Delvoye, who made headlines last week when he sold a tattoo on another man's back, bred the pigs on a farm outside Beijing, tattooing them young and letting the images stretch as they grew. The hides are sold for up to €7,500 ($10,600) a piece; in February, two bags made from one of his hides, marked with Disney characters, were exhibited at Chanel's Mobile Art exhibition in Hong Kong.

"We have collectors who've traveled to China all the way from Europe to see the pigs," said Delvoye. "They're very disappointed.''