Dispute over bear statue in Trentino

The five-meter-high statue of a bear is causing controversy in the Italian Trentino region. The subject of brown bears is causing controversy there. The artist who recreated the animal from root wood has even been faced with death threats.

The installation of a brown bear statue made of root wood is causing controversy in the northern Italian region of Trentino. A heated debate has been raging there for some time about the coexistence of the population with the bear population. The artist Marco Martello even received death threats because of the sculpture, which was erected in the Adamello Brenta Nature Park in the Dolomite municipality of Molveno at an altitude of 1,550 meters.