The marketplace policeman has been standing in front of the Oulu market hall since 1987.

The planner of the statue undertaking was the contemporary exhibition secretary of the Oulu art museum Kaija-Rita Koivisto: The whole statue idea was born when I was walking around the market place and hall, and I thought why couldn’t Oulu have some kind of a label or a landmark, a statue at the market place, the kind of statue that would represent Oulu.

While visiting Kajaani, Koivisto went to a gallery and found a small dusty statue that greatly reminded a market place policeman. The owner of the gallery Kaarlo Mikkonen told her that he had made the statue for his father-in-law, who worked as a rural police chief. Unlike people often think the statue wasn’t made according to any particular market place policeman. It is symbolic: all market place policemen have been easy-going and had a big belly.

A fundraising was initiated in 1985 to fund the statue. At the corners of the streets and on the service desks of banks people could find vases in which they could donate some money. The fundraising was enhanced by campaigns, lotteries, sales of miniature statues and postcards etc. The money was collected and a contract made with the sculptor.

The bronze marketplace policeman statue was revealed on Christmas Day 1987 and a policeman choir was singing in the ceremony. The last real marketplace policeman had just retired and participated in the ceremony. The statue is exactly the same as the small one found in Kajaani. Only the strap of the big statue is moved on the right side.

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