Skeleton horse erected in London’s Trafalgar Square

LONDON — London’s Trafalgar Square, full of tourists, pigeons and military monuments, has a new occupant — a skeletal horse displaying stock quotes.

German artist Hans Haacke’s “Gift Horse” was unveiled today atop the square’s “fourth plinth,” a major platform for public art.

The work is a skeleton horse with a London Stock Exchange ticker tied to its leg.

Mr Haacke said the artwork was a nod to the square’s other equestrian statues, of King Charles I and King George IV. He said he hoped visitors would be “intrigued by what the ticker of the London Stock Exchange tells them about their fortunes”.

The plinth was erected in 1841 for an equestrian statue that was never completed. Since 1999, it has been occupied by artworks, displayed for about 18 months at a time. AP