Heroin spoon sculpture placed in front of drugmaker

FILE - This Tuesday, May 8, 2007 file photo shows the Purdue Pharma offices in Stamford, Conn. (AP Photo/Douglas Healey, File)

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) -- An 800-pound, nearly 11-foot-long steel sculpture of a bent and burned drug spoon placed in front of the Connecticut headquarters of drugmaker Purdue Pharma as part of an opioid crisis protest has been removed.

Artist Domenic Esposito and gallery owner Fernando Alvarez dropped the sculpture outside the Stamford headquarters Friday.

Police arrested Alvarez and the city hauled the sculpture away. Several state and local governments are suing Purdue Pharma for allegedly using deceptive marketing to boost sales of its opioid painkiller OxyContin, blamed for fueling the opioid epidemic. Purdue Pharma denies the allegations.

It says it shares protesters' concerns and respects their right to peacefully express themselves.

The sculpture is part of an exhibit on the opioid crisis that opened Friday at Alvarez's gallery in Stamford.

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