The sculpture is of a large whelk shell, with a small sea bird standing on top of it.
The sculpture was originally created in the 1980s together with a second sculpture of a water nymph. The Mayor of Faro commissioned the sculptures after seeing similar work in an exhibition at the Museu de Arqueologia de Faro.
It was designed by local artist José Luís Costa, and sculpted by him and Miró da Silva and Pascal Radar, with an an innovative hammering technique to work the copper.
Unfortunately after the work was completed the council could not decide where to place the sculpture. It was finally sited in the Marina in 2012 and has no plaque to describe it.
Madeleine Blondel, the widow of José Luís Costa saw a picture of the sculpture on Facebook and travelled from her home in Brussels to visit it.
She is upset at the location of the sculpture and also the fact that there is no plaque to identify it. She is campaigning to get a plaque erected for the sculpture. This
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