"the U.K.'s largest public artwork"

Sculptor Anish Kapoor will put up a $29-million tower in the 2012 Lon- don Olympics park, with ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest steelmaker, contributing as much as $24 million of the cost.

London Mayor Boris Johnson defined the red structure as the U.K.'s largest public artwork. Taller than Big Ben and the Statue of Liberty, and twice as high as Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square, the ArcelorMittal Orbit will resemble an oil rig twisting around itself, a 377-feet spiraling lattice of tubular steel.

"There will be people who will say we are nuts, in the depths of a recession, to be building Britain's biggest ever piece of public art," said Johnson.

"This is the right thing for Stratford in the Olympics and beyond," he said, referring to the Olympics' east London site.