Not all public sculpture is received with appreciation and gratitude. Some are hated, and some are just plain baffling. Yet some of the most complained-about public statues continue to be displayed for so long that they become part of the community folklore. See the picture above? That’s Christopher Columbus, standing in Seattle, Washington.
It's unclear why a favorite "discoverer" of countries has a statue in Seattle of all places, facing a body of water he would perhaps never have dreamed of existing. The statue was soundly rejected by the local Arts Commission of Seattle, but the Seattle City Council overruled the people who could have averted this disaster. Christopher Columbus' alien-robot doppelganger was the first statue by local Douglas Bennett, who said he wanted to depict Columbus as gaunt and worried. Bennett allegedly never received a commission to sculpt again.
Read about other statues, like the two men who pee into a fountain shaped like the Czech Republic, the statue that mooned Mayor LaGuardia, and more at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Flickr user City of Seattle)
Of course, I thought it was Don Quixote at first; and I like it better as Don Quixote than as Christopher Columbus, but I still like it.