{"id":281977,"date":"2026-02-13T09:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T09:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/281977\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T09:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T09:32:15","slug":"war-horse-sculpture-from-ndr-roundabouts-going-up-for-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/281977\/","title":{"rendered":"War Horse sculpture from NDR roundabouts going up for sale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  The sculpture, standing more than 10ft tall and weighing nearly a tonne, was created by the artist Damian O\u2019Connor from Taverham.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  It would appear unexpectedly on roundabouts across the county, leaving motorists intrigued.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>The wooden horse spotted on an NDR roundabout in 2017 (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Norfolk County Council ordered Mr O&#8217;Connor to stop putting the horse on roundabouts for safety reasons in 2017 and warned he could face possible enforcement action if he did not comply.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edp24.co.uk\/news\/20817763.back-giant-war-horse-spotted-close-norwichs-ndr\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">After working with the council<\/a>, the structure made of steel, wood and reeds continued to be spotted on several roads and roundabouts off the NDR near Norwich.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The artist revealed that he was approached many times by police when moving the structure, including an incident in 2019 where <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edp24.co.uk\/news\/20789891.artist-falls-foal-police-war-horse-sculpture-removed\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">he complained about the officer&#8217;s actions<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>The horse was a regular feature on roads around Norwich (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;I like to believe that when people see it, they get a feeling about it,&#8221; Mr O&#8217;Connor said at the time.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;Whether that is memories of their grandfather using horses to plough fields or another feeling.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  &#8220;Although this is art, it is also similar to real horses in the fact that it moves and keeps moving.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>The sculpture on a roundabout on the NDR (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The artist decided not to name the sculpture, encouraging the public to give it personal significance, transforming it into &#8220;a shared symbol rather than a fixed narrative&#8221;.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  On Saturday, the horse will go on sale at Mander Auctioneers in Sudbury after Mr O\u2019Connor decided to retire due to health reasons.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  A spokesman for Mander Auctioneers said: &#8220;Its sale presents a rare opportunity to acquire a major outdoor artwork with proven public impact, cultural resonance and scale suitable for institutional display, private land or prominent public settings.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The sculpture symbolises the substantial contribution heavy horses have made to human history for thousands of years, from war to agriculture, transport and trade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sculpture, standing more than 10ft tall and weighing nearly a tonne, was created by the artist Damian&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-281977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}