(Image Credit: Associated Press)

Sydney's famous harbor, most recently grand central for New Year's Eve celebrations, will this weekend be turned into a "giant bathtub" courtesy of a giant floating duck.

The five-story, yellow duck took a test run through the harbor's waters today in preparation for its grand unveiling Saturday at the opening of the Sydney Festival, a nearly month-long arts and music celebration.

The duck is the work of Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, 35, who says the piece of art, titled "Rubber Duck" and made from PVC material, has "healing properties."

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"The Rubber Duck knows no frontiers, it doesn't discriminate people and doesn't have a political connotation," he writes on his website.

The Sydney harbor duck was made in New Zealand and is one of several versions of Hofman's "Rubber Duck." The art has also made appearances in Japan, Brazil and throughout Hofman's native Netherlands.

The duck, according to local media reports, took three weeks to construct and takes about 30 minutes to inflate, using four blowers. It sits atop a 10-ton barge that both prevents it from blowing away and moves it forward.

"We're using these beautiful heritage-restored tugs … [that are] going to be completely dwarfed by the duck," Sydney Festival production manager Mick Jessop told Sydney's Telegraph. "It's going to look like a huge bathtub."

The duck will remain in the harbor through the end of January.