![\"Default](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784171771_688_author_avatar.png\"){kind=avatar}
SALZBURG, Austria \u2014<\/p>\nHorde of mini golden statues of Mozart and his dog pop up in Salzburg for composer’s 270th birthday<\/p>\n
SALZBURG, Austria \u2014<\/p>\n
Visitors to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s hometown can see the composer \u2014 and his dog \u2014 in miniature as Salzburg celebrates the 270th anniversary of his birth. But they shouldn’t wait too long.<\/p>\n
The Mozarteum Foundation on Wednesday unveiled 300 gold-colored statuettes of Mozart, which are barely 50 centimeters (less than 20 inches) tall. They were designed by German concept artist Ottmar H\u00f6rl.<\/p>\n
Mozart was born on Jan. 27, 1756, in the Austrian city, where the Mozarteum Foundation offers concerts, maintains Mozart museums and supports research on him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to do a monument of Mozart. There are already enough of these. But I wanted to show his human side, that he was a normal human being despite his genius,\u201d H\u00f6rl told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
To give the statues a human touch, H\u00f6rl depicted the composer with his favorite dog, Pimperl. Mozart and his family were known to take long walks with their dogs in the Mirabell Garden, next to where they lived.<\/p>\n
The mini-Mozarts populate not only the garden but also Mozart\u2019s former living quarters as well as several pavilions. In all, 400 statues were made, but only 300 are on display at present. The rest are being kept in reserve in case of theft.<\/p>\n
“Two already got stolen within the last few hours,\u201d Linus Klumpner of the Mozarteum Foundation said. But the statues are meant to attract a broader range of visitors and get them hooked on Mozart\u2019s Music.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou come here, maybe you see the small golden heads shimmering in the sun on the horizon. And people become curious,” Klumpner said. “And then a process begins which is very much in our interest. That is to bring new people in contact with Mozart.”<\/p>\n
For H\u00f6rl, the theft of his artworks is nothing new. At an installation in Bayreuth, Germany, a complete array of statues of Richard Wagner was stolen within 10 days.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just the nature of public space. That means when you work as an artist in a public space, you mustn\u2019t complain about what is happening there,” H\u00f6rl said. “It ranges from destruction to theft. That\u2019s just how it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Mozart statues are scheduled to remain on display until Aug. 30. People who would like to own one but would prefer not to steal it can purchase one for 100 euros ($114) \u2013 while supplies last.<\/p>\n
H\u00f6rl is known for his sculptures made from polymer. In 2010, he displayed 10,000 plastic owls in Athens. A \u201cHomage to D\u00fcrer\u201d showcased oversized plastic copies of Albrecht D\u00fcrer\u2019s hare at the Daegu Art Museum in South Korea.<\/p>\n
In 2009, German prosecutors decided against investigating H\u00f6rl over a series of golden garden gnomes doing the Hitler salute, under a law that forbids using insignia forbidden by the German constitution. H\u00f6rl himself intended the gnomes as satire against the Nazis’ ideology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Horde of mini golden statues of Mozart and his dog pop up in Salzburg for composer’s 270th birthday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[120394,8247,247249,247231,46939,230474,230476,146,247247,85,46,165463,247244,247232,247233,247234,247235,247236,247237,247248,247238,247239,409,240810,247240,35378,247246,247241,230473,5252,22667,247242,247245,230475,243539,230472,247243],"class_list":["post-543715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-art-installation","tag-austria","tag-austrian-city","tag-austrian-tourism","tag-classical-music","tag-demand-menu-subscribe","tag-email-weather-search","tag-entertainment","tag-golden-statuettes","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jsnd","tag-miniature-statues","tag-mirabell-garden","tag-mozart","tag-mozart-anniversary","tag-mozart-birthday","tag-mozart-exhibit","tag-mozart-museum","tag-mozart-museums","tag-mozart-statues","tag-mozarteum-foundation","tag-music","tag-nowcast","tag-ottmar-horl","tag-page","tag-pimperl","tag-pimperl-the-dog","tag-privacy-notice-term","tag-public-art","tag-salzburg","tag-salzburg-attractions","tag-stolen-statues","tag-use-nextfre","tag-weekday-news-watch","tag-wjcl","tag-wolfgang-amadeus-mozart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}