An owl got stuck in an iconic sculpture. After rehab, it’s free again.

By Alisa Tang
October 29, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. EDT



"Typewriter Eraser, Scale X" by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen sits in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden in April 2021. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post)

It was the morning of Friday the 13th, and staff were tending the grounds of the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden when they spotted something amiss: feathers sticking out of the blue bristles of the gigantic typewriter eraser.

As they stepped in for a closer look, they realized a barred owl was stuck in the brush of “Typewriter Eraser, Scale X” — the garden’s six-meter-tall steel-and-fiberglass sculpture of the once-common office relic. ... The bird was still. But as the gardeners approached, it turned its head and blinked.

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But then came Friday the 13th and the extraordinary owl in the eraser. It was unclear how the owl got into its predicament, but staff sprang into action. “It clearly needed help,” McNish said.



Brett McNish, supervisory horticulturist of the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Art, rescues a barred owl Oct. 13 from the typewriter eraser sculpture. (Katy May/National Gallery of Art)



The owl was taken to City Wildlife, an animal rescue center in D.C. “It was extremely lethargic, and it looked really sad,” executive director Jim Monsma said. (Katy May/National Gallery of Art)

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Sarah Sirica, clinic director at City Wildlife, places the barred owl into a carrier Oct. 21 for transport to Delaware. (City Wildlife)

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By Alisa Tang
Alisa Tang is the Metro breaking news editor for The Washington Post. She spent 15 years as a correspondent in Asia, reporting in countries spanning from Afghanistan to Papua New Guinea. She covered the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, 2006 coup in Thailand, as well as violence and social issues in Afghanistan. She joined The Washington Post in 2017.