Pudong New Area government yesterday announced the 10 design winners of an urban sculpture competition, according to Monday's Shanghai Daily.

Of the winners, three were renowned international artists who were invited to participate in the bidding. The rest works were chosen from the 83 submission which entered in the second round of the competition.

The selected works included "Eagle," "Sunrise in the East" and "Intelligence." The winning designers were from China, France, the United States and Germany.

Among the world renowned sculptors selected are France's Albert Feraud who designed the largest street sculpture in Paris, compatriot Jean Cardot who created the Churchill sculpture, and American Richard MacDonald who created "Flair" for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

The sculptures are expected to be erected at Lujiazui Central Greenbelt, the Riverside Avenue and the Shanghai New International Expo Center in the near future.

Since the end of last year, the competition collected 517 designs by 161 artists from 31 countries and regions.

At an international art seminar in the city yesterday, art experts said Shanghai should have more "international" street sculptures that matched the environment in the city's downtown.

A total of 12 sculpture experts from home and abroad were invited to attend the International Symposium on Public Art for Shanghai - the first of its kind which aims to improve the city's quality of street sculptures.

"Shanghai will become a much more beautiful city once a batch of international sculptures are in place," said James Bliesner, a community artist and sculptor from San Diego, California.

Zhu Dequn, a renowned artist, commented "the city is in need of some sculptures that reflect both modern and historic content."

A recent survey conducted by the Shanghai Urban Planning Administrative Bureau revealed that only 10 percent of the city's 1,034 street statues were rated by its "expert panel" as "excellent pieces." Most were either medium- or poor-quality.

According to Mao Jialiang, the bureau director, the city expects to have about 5,000 urban sculptures - including 100 major landscape sculptures - by 2010 when the World Expo is held in Shanghai.

Shanghai Daily