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When a 1,300-pound walrus appeared in Oslo last summer, swimming on the pier and eating oysters, it became a beloved local delight and an overnight international media sensation.
The walrus, a rare visitor to the Norwegian capital, was named Freya, after the Norse goddess of love, beauty and war – all of which she inspired to varying degrees.
Freya spends time in a densely populated area, where some people ignore warnings from officials to keep their distance, and will help themselves to boats, some of which are threatened with drowning due to their weight.
Norwegian authorities declared Freya a threat to human safety last August and killed her in a move critics criticized as too hasty. His death divided a country that was closely related to diplomacy and love of nature.
A statue in his memory, called “For Our Sins,” was opened at Kongen Marina in Oslo.
Astri Tonoian, a Norwegian artist, spent months creating the sculpture, based on photographs of the animal. In a phone interview on Sunday, he said he wanted to make a “historical document about the case” and the controversy surrounding it that spoke to “the human ability to face the unknown.”
“We have to practice coexistence” with people and wildlife, Ms. Tonoian said.
The bronze statue is a life-size depiction of Freya that weighs about 650 pounds, about half of her actual weight due to the empty interior. An online campaign that raised $25,000 supported the creation of the work.
The statue “will always remind ourselves (and future generations) that we cannot or should not kill and remove nature while ‘on the road,'” the organizer of the fundraising website, Hans Erik Holm, wrote on the website.
“I wanted to do it for people by people,” Mr. Holm said in a phone interview on Friday, adding, “This is a confession to the government” to kill Freya.
Kongen Marina is near where Freya was euthanized, Ms. Tonoian said, and also near the museum, which she calls “a symbol of knowledge.”
Norway’s Fisheries Directorate said in a statement in August that Freya was put down in a “humane way” because of “potential harm to the public and animal welfare was not safeguarded.”
At the time, the ministry also published a photo of a large group of people gathered around Freya close enough to touch her and quoted veterinary experts as saying, “The walrus appears to be stressed by so much attention.”
“Ultimately, we can’t see any other option,” said Olav Lekver, the agency’s spokesman. “He’s in an area that’s not natural for him.”
Ms. Tonoian said the sculpture is also a real rendering for those who are not lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Freya.
She was especially moved when the blind people came to the unveiling there, she said.
“They don’t know what a walrus looks like,” he said, but now “they are included in the conversation about this walrus by feeling it and feeling it.”
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