Oslo's 'Y block' office
building, with a Picasso drawing sand-blasted
onto a 250-tonne section of the facade, will be
replaced by a modern, safer alternative, the
government says.
The demolition has sharply divided opinion.
Critics say the 50-year-old Brutalist concrete
structure is ugly and deserves to be razed,
while fans called for its protection.
Picasso collaborated with Norwegian sculptor
Carl Nesjar, who turned designs by the Spanish
artist into massive concrete works in New York,
Barcelona, Oslo and other cities.
Using an entire outer wall of the Y building,
Nesjar gave Picasso's "The Fishermen" a
prominent place in the Norwegian capital, and
also blasted "Seagull", a floor-to-ceiling
drawing, onto a 60-tonne wall in the lobby.
The low-rise structure, built in 1969 and named
after its shape as seen from the air, housed the
education ministry until July 22, 2011, when
anti-Islam militant Anders Behring Breivik
detonated a large bomb nearby.
Both art works will be removed and preserved to
be installed elsewhere, although campaigners say
the building and the art belong together.
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As workers detached the mural,
one campaigner, Norwegian singer-songwriter
Elvira Nikolaisen, told Reuters: "There is a
grieving process that this is happening."
But she added: "At the same time, the spirit
that many displayed to campaign to protect the
building has been very positive. People have
woken up to the value of this art."
The 2011 bombing, which killed eight people, and
a later mass shooting that claimed a further 69,
were Norway's worst peacetime atrocity.
Several nearby buildings were damaged in the
blast and have been torn down, while an office
tower that also contains some of Picasso's work
will be restored.
The Y building, boarded up since 2011 but with
little structural damage, could have been
repaired, but the government said its location
over a road tunnel exposed it to attack.
(Editing by Giles Elgood)
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