The entire controversy looks set to become a major embarrassment for the Oslo politicians and bureaucrats who launched the statue project several years ago.
The fate of the statue now completed by 83-year-old artist Knut Steen hung in the balance this week, with most politicians staying mum, Oslo residents either bashing or praising it, and Steen himself threatening to simply bury it in Italy.
City officials gave Steen the job in 2000, and he took it as a favour to the mayor, after none of the proposals submitted in an open competition failed to satisfy those judging them. The plan was for a statue of King Olav to be placed in arguably the most prestigious spot in town: The large open plaza at the inner harbor next to City Hall (Rådhusplassen).
Steen started chipping away at a huge slab of Iddefjjord granite measuring 1.5 meters square and 7.5 meters long. The budget was set at NOK 2 million.
The problem, basically, is that reaction to the completed statue last year was negative. Steen portrayed King Olav in a serious pose with his right arm raised, and that's not the way most Norwegians viewed their folksey monarch.
Neither the people nor their politicians seemed to like Steen's work, although no one wants to hurt the ageing artist's feelings. Some, though, have been blunt, likening the statue to those mounted in dictatorships, of tyrants like Saddam Hussein standing on pedestals with raised arms. Certainly not something for democratic Norway, they've sniffed.
The controversy left the city and Steen in a quandary, and Steen attempted to make some improvements, chipping away at the king's face and arm, for example, to soften them. But there was only so much he could do, and now he claims the statue is finished. Take it or leave it.
A group of city officials recently travelled to Italy to have another look at the statue, but they're not revealing their reaction pending the filing of a report on the trip. No one can say for certain what will happen next.
"Nothing is certain," sighs Svenn Kristiansen, Oslo's vice-mayor from the Progress Party. He won't reveal his personal opinion of the statue at this point, other than to say it was "different" from the photos he'd seen.
"It's not clear yet how this will be settled," says Knut Even Lindsjørn of the Socialist Left.
"I registered the strong reactions last year, and understood them," Lindsjørn told newspaper Aften. "On the other hand, this is a piece of art, and there always are divided opinions on art."
