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An Edward Snowden Statue Was Illegally Installed in a Brooklyn Park

The city is already trying to get rid of it.
​Screengrab: ​YouTube

Update: The NYPD has taken the sculpture down. See below for more information.

For a few short hours this morning, you could have taken a selfie with Edward Snowden—sort of.

Four artists installed a four-foot tall, 100-pound statue of the NSA leaker in a Brooklyn park early Monday morning, accor​ding to Animal New York. Complete with his square-rimmed glasses, the bust is attached to a stone column that leads to the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene Park.

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Pictures of the monument quickly spread on Instagram and Twitter.

MarketWatch: RT SAFmedia: A statue of Edward Snowden mysteriously showed up in Brooklyn overnight: … pic.twitter.com/yJk0nKLVph

— Holmes Unlimited (@ltholmes) April 6, 2015

The Snowden statue is placed at a memorial that commemorates the 12,000 prisoners of war who died during the Battle of Long Island during the Revolutionary War. The artists told Animal that the purpose of the statute is to reignite conversation about government surveillance.

"We have updated this monument to highlight those who sacrifice their safety in the fight against modern-day tyrannies," the artists,  ​who remained anonymous because installing the statue was illegal, said. "It would be a dishonor to those memorialized here to not laud those who protect the ideals they fought for, as Edward Snowden has by bringing the NSA's 4th-Amendment-violating surveillance programs to light."

The artists said the sculpture costs "thousands of dollars" and took six months to assemble and ship to New York from out west.

Unsurprisingly, the statue has caught the eye of the authorities. The New York City parks department has already draped a blue tarp over the statue, as seen in this Vine.

The artists weren't expecting it to last.

"If it gets taken down right away, it will certainly be a disappointment. But the fact that a risk was taken, the fact that the image comes out of that event that can be passed around, can never be undone," the artist said in the video.

Motherboard has reached out to the New York City Police Department about the future of the statue. Update: A representative for the New York parks department said it has removed the statue.

"Parks and NYPD have removed the sculpture. The erection of any unapproved structure or artwork in a city park is illegal," a parks spokesperson said.