Oxford City Council designates 7.6 metre installation by artist Bill Heine a protected landmark.
The 7.6 metre (25 feet) sculpture of a shark crashing through the roof of Magnus Hanson-Heine’s house in Oxford's Headington suburb is now a protected landmark. It was erected by his father and a local sculptor in 1986 as an anti-war, anti-nuclear protest that still remains relevant today.
The council has designated the structure a heritage site that makes a “special contribution” to the community. Bill Heine installed the shark without the approval of local officials because he didn’t think they should have the right to decide what art people see, and the irony is that the council spent years trying to remove the sculpture.
“Using the planning apparatus to preserve a historical symbol of planning law defiance is absurd on the face of it,” Hanson-Heine, a quantum chemist, told the Associated Press.
Heine and his friend sculptor John Buckley built the great white out of fiberglass, then installed it on 9 August, the 41st anniversary of the day the US dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
The shark’s anti-war message is just as important today, Henson-Heine said.