Botero on his practice of sculpture:

'When I deform things I enter a subconscious world rich in folk images. For me rotundity in art is linked to pleasure. Basically it's a matter of rationalizing natural impulses.' (from the OAS Museum).

Another Bird is found outside the airport in Florence, Italy. The works are cast in Tuscany. Botero donated a similar bird to the city of Medellin, Colombia, his birthplace, in the mid 1990s, as a gesture to rebuilding the city devastated by drug-related violence. The sculpture was bombed, with 26 casualties. (Source: Penelope Richardson website).

From the Miami Herald, May 8, 2000

"On June 11, 1995, a huge bomb exploded in an open-air park in Medellin. It was hidden at the feet of his [Botero's] outdoor sculpture, The Bird, and killed 23 people and wounded 200 others.

'This was so completely stupid,' Botero said. 'When I learned of it, I said leave the [damaged sculpture] there, as a monument to stupidity.'

In January, Botero returned to Medellin to unveil a second sculpture, The Bird of Peace, placed a few yards south of the mangled, blast-damaged original sculpture. 'I want this to remain as a monument to violence and the peace,'' he said.