Bizarre Squid Statue Pops Up In Dallas And No One Knows Where It Came From

A mysterious squid-headed statue has popped up at Pioneer Park Cemetery where Dallas officials recently removed a Confederate War memorial — and nobody knows how it got there.

The statue was discovered Monday by a passerby, the Dallas Morning News reported. It resembles a woman's body with the head of a cephalopod with a halo. The platform it stands on looks like animal skulls and bones. It's also holding a dollar coin.

Jennifer Scripps, the director of Dallas' Office of Arts & Culture, told the Dallas Morning News the statue is not public artwork and "does not belong in the public space." She added the city is in the process of removing the statue.

The plaque next to the puzzling statue says the work is a "portrait of Sarah Horton Cockrell," a 19th century Dallas businesswoman. It also says the statue is a gift from late Dallasite T. Boone Pickens. Pickens' estate had never heard of the statue.

In 2019, a similar unauthorized statue popped up near the Convention Center DART Station — which also resembled a cephalopod. The city removed the statue, citing it as a safety hazard. The 2019 statue and the statue found Monday were both signed by artist "Solomon."