RELATED VIDEO CNN's Keith Oppenheim reports on this unusual invasion of the bovine variety Windows Media 28K 80K

June 18, 1999
Web posted at: 9:28 p.m. EDT (0128 GMT)

CHICAGO (CNN) -- Along Chicago's Michigan Avenue, people are stopping, laughing and touching art work in "udder" delight.

Called "Cows on Parade," an ongoing exhibition of outdoor art features a herd of some 300 faux bovines, grazing among the skyscrapers.

There's a cow on a boat, a Marilyn Monroe cow, a cow jumping over the moon, a cow on a cow on a cow, and even a tribute to the late Chicago Cubs broadcaster Harry Carey, whose trademark phrase was "holy cow."

"It's a totally new way of looking at art," said Peter Hanig, a Michigan Avenue shoe store owner who saw a similar display in Zurich, Switzerland, and decided to bring the idea to Chicago.

But this project is not just about art. In October, many of these cows will be taken to the "cattle pit" of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange -- where livestock futures are sold -- where they will be auctioned off.

All the moo-la will go to charity.

Correspondent Keith Oppenheim contributed to this report.

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