LOS ANGELES — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has reintroduced the grizzly bear to California.

On a recent business and skiing trip to Aspen, Colo., the governor popped into an art gallery and became transfixed by a large-scale bronze sculpture of a grizzly bear.

“Suddenly this picture started running in my mind of this being in front of my office in the Capitol,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “I thought of kids sitting on it, and wouldn’t that be cool?”

So he reached into his personal bank account and ponied up for the bear — as well as the shipping costs to Sacramento last month — and there it now sits, outside Mr. Schwarzenegger’s office, as he dreamed.

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“Everyone is loving it now,” he said. “We have so many kids hanging around, it has become a great attraction.”

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The governor is not giving up the price, but Jonny Carlson, a partner at Royal Street Fine Art in Aspen, said the work of the sculptor, Steven Bennett, ranges from $2,000 to $100,000, and the sort the governor picked out was in the $20,000 range.

Mr. Bennett, a naturalist sculptor who works in bronze, granite and marble, is known for his life-size animals. The gallery, which has three locations in Aspen, uprooted from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and brought Mr. Bennett — and his giraffes and such — along.