Paavo Nurmi statue

[1] In his search for a proper movement and position Aaltonen also used photographs of Nurmi's exercise technics published in Toivo J. Kaila's book.

The twisted position of the sculpture's torso refers to Nurmi's characteristic long step starting from his pelvis.

The sculpture is a direct reference to the nude athletes of ancient Greece and the continuation of Hellenistic art.

Typical to its time, it was judged on a racial basis, and it was seen to represent the properties of the Finnish people and race.

[1] Wäinö Aaltonen's clay model was completed already in the same year[3] and the bronze cast by Aukusti Veuro in autumn 1925.

[1] The third copy of the sculpture was revealed in Nurmi's home city of Turku in 1955 on the Itäinen Rantakatu street near the Auransilta bridge, only a few years after the Olympic Games.

[5] The sculpture was later moved a few metres closer to the harbour from its original position because of intersection arrangements and a traffic lights column placed right in front of the statue.

[6] The first cast of the statue was shown at numerous foreign exhibitions in the 1950s and 1960s,[1] but its proper site remained at the Ateneum.

The newspaper Keskisuomalainen published a headline: "Culture scandal - the Nurmi statue taken from Jyväskylä is hardly coming back any more".

In addition to the poster of the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, numerous advertisements and postcards the sculpture was featured on the 10 markka banknote.

The explanation was simple: this was a case of a teekkari student prank, the statue had only been placed on the ship during the previous night.