Free Stamp

This eye-popping piece of art is difficult to miss. With a large red handle and a stamp bearing the word "FREE," the artwork has always been the center of controversy. Artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen created the massive 28'-by-48' steel and aluminum sculpture in 1985 for Standard Oil of Ohio. Originally planned to be located on Public Square in front of the old SOHIO building, the stamp was placed in a storage facility in Indiana after SOHIO underwent a change of management. BP America, which later assumed management of SOHIO, donated the stamp to the city of Cleveland. The artists protested the stamp's relocation from its original planned site, but later agreed to place it at its current location of Willard Park, just east of City Hall. The Free Stamp was officially inaugurated on Nov. 15, 1991, with the approval of then-Mayor Michael R. White.