CNN
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New York City has unveiled a sculpture paying homage to one of many metropolis’s most enduring myths: Alligators lurking within the sewers.
The sculpture reveals a life-size gator wrapped round a New York City manhole cowl, according to a news release from the Union Square Partnership. Designed by Swedish artist Alexander Klingspor, the bronze statue is on show at Union Square Park in Manhattan.
“The theme of this piece is depicting the legend of the alligator in the NYC sewers. Having lived over a decade in Manhattan I wanted to pay tribute to the city I love by depicting one of its most popular urban legends,” mentioned the artist on his website.
“This artwork deals with two interesting aspects of our world; our need for gods, myths, and legends much like any other civilization prior to ours, and our habit of creating invasive species by moving animals from their natural habitats to human environments,” he mentioned.
Fittingly, the sculpture is entitled “N.Y.C Legend.” The piece shall be on show till June 2024, in response to the Union Square Partnership. The art work was created in partnership with New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and Union Square Partnership, and funded by Swedish Mollbrinks Gallery, in response to the information launch.
It is against the law to personal alligators below New York state and city law. The cold-blooded reptiles are native to hotter climates and are discovered within the wild within the southeastern US.
Despite this, alligators sometimes flip up within the Big Apple, just like the gator rescued from a lake in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park earlier this yr. The reptile was decided to be an escaped pet and died regardless of efforts to rehabilitate it on the Bronx Zoo.
Rumors about alligators within the sewers appear thus far again to not less than the Nineteen Thirties, when The New York Times reported “youths” in Harlem had found an alligator within the sewer and promptly beat it to dying.
