What are these mysterious statues that are popping up around Dallas?

Marble statue's hand
Marble statue's hand Photo credit simone_rozio/Getty Images

City officials recently removed a Confederate War memorial from Pioneer Park, though it wasn't long before something else took its place.

This past Monday, a passerby noticed that where the memorial once stood was now a statue with the body of a human with a face that looks like a combination of an octopus and a squid, and nobody knows how it got there.

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A plaque near the statue calls it a "portrait of Sarah Horton Cockrell," the 19th-century Dallas businesswoman, and also claims to be a gift from another prominent, late Dallasite, T. Boone Pickens, though his estate says they have never heard of the work.

Jennifer Scripps, who heads the city’s Office of Arts and Culture, told the Dallas News this piece is NOT a public artwork and “does not belong in the public space."

Scripps said the new work is in the process of being removed.

This act is very reminiscent of a similar stunt pulled in 2019, where a statue of a "Cthulhu-like" figure appeared near the Convention Center DART station. The anonymous artist called it a "cephalopod," which is the name of a group of animals like squid and octopi. The city removed it, calling it a "safety hazard."

Both statues were "created" by and credited to the same mysterious artist: Solomon.

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Featured Image Photo Credit: simone_rozio/Getty Images