Visitors to a popular Oslo sculpture park discovered early on Thursday that several naked statues had been censored, with paper rectangles pasted on their genitals and bottoms, Norwegian media reported.
“There is enough nudity in the newspaper. Let’s not have it in the park!” read a note posted on a nearby column in the Vigeland park, photographed by the photo agency Scanpix.
It was unknown who was behind the stunt. The note, written by hand on a sheet of paper, was signed only with the letters “F.M.N.H.”. It was not known what the letters signified.
Oslo city employees cleaned the statues later on Thursday morning.
According to Norwegian news agency NTB, early birds visiting the park reacted with both humour and dismay. Some took it with a smile; others were shocked by the defacing of the work of one of Norway’s most beloved artists, Gustav Vigeland.
Vigeland Park is set in Frogner, an area west of Oslo’s city centre. The Norwegian artist worked on the park from 1924 until his death in 1943. He modelled every one of the 212 bronze and granite statues and designed the gardens’ layout.
The centrepiece of the park is a 14m monolith, intending to symbolise the struggle for existence, depicting 121 people scrambling over one another to reach the summit. — AFP