A bronze sculpture of a sea turtle in a Boston neighborhood is being relocated after some parents said it was too hot for children to sit on earlier this summer.
The sculpture of "Myrtle the Turtle" won't be going far. City officials said Monday it will be moving to the garden area of the Myrtle Street Playground, where it currently sits in Beacon Hill.
Inspired by a green sea turtle at the New England Aquarium, the low-to-the-ground sculpture was unveiled in May and invites children to play on it.
As temperatures heated up over the summer, so did controversy over the sculpture — the city received several complaints that it was too hot for children to sit on. Officials said they received one complaint saying the turtle reached 133 degrees and another that the sculpture burned young children.
While officials figured out what to do, "Myrtle the Turtle" was covered up with a blue tarp.
The playground will be closed this week while the turtle is relocated. It will be back open after Labor Day.
The artist behind the sculpture, Nancy Schön, told The Boston Globe that the complaints were "ludicrous" and the statue's relocation "a knee-jerk reaction."
