[MSN] Attacking artwork is rare in Kentucky

[Museum Security Network Mailing list]

Sunday, December 2, 2007
 
Attacking artwork is rare in Kentucky 

By Diane Heilenman
dheilenman at courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal


Either security is mighty good when it comes to art in the Louisville area,
or we the people are sane and polite. Whatever, local art doesn't often
invite the kind of vandalism recently seen in European museums and
galleries. 

No one at Louisville's Speed Art Museum can recall a single instance of
vandalism. 

The Kentucky Center, which has a multimillion-dollar collection of sculpture
-- some of it very accessible -- by such top names in 20th-century art as
Miro, Calder, Dubuffet and Nevelson, has no record of damage. 

Of the two dozen artist-made bike racks around downtown, which would seem
prime targets, "the Raymond Graf piece at Fourth and Chestnut got nicked by
a car," said Ken Herndon of the Louisville Downtown Management District that
oversees the project. And Herndon said the Bryan Holden piece on Fourth
across from the former Cafe Kilimanjaro was used by someone to do chin-ups
on, "but we fixed it." 

A check with Metro Louisville Police revealed no reported art vandalism and
only a few instances of theft, such as the removal and eventual recovery of
an artist-decorated giant head that was part of the "Heads Up Kentucky!"
public art program in 2005 to educate people about mental health. 

One possible instance of vandalism in Louisville might be the 1974
disappearance of part of the left foot of the marble statue of King Louis
XVI of France (for whom the city is named) at Sixth and Jefferson streets.
The 40-pound piece of instep-to-toes marble was detachable and, as the story
goes, it was replaced by a beer can. But, because the section was
detachable, the firm that installed the statue had taken a plaster cast of
it, just in case. A Vermont firm copied it in marble and the 12-inch section
was replaced in 1975 for $337.05. The statue was a 1967 gift from the city
of Montpelier, France. 

The scarcity of vandalism "makes me feel good," said Kirstin Booker,
administrator of public art programs for Louisville. 

Of the 20 major bronze works under the aegis of Metro Louisville, only three
have suffered vandalism, she said. The bust of the Marquis de Lafayette in a
niche on the façade of the old jail at Sixth and Liberty streets had a piece
of chewed bubblegum stuck on its head. A small "tag" of graffiti was painted
on the backside of the sculpture of financier Tom Simon near The Brown
hotel; and one of the 28 painted metal birds in the "Flock of Finns,"
modeled after wooden birds designed by the late Louisville folk artist
Marvin Finn, got "slightly bent" during four outdoor displays. 

Regionally, even places you'd think might have problems are relatively
unscathed. 

At Georgetown College, which opened the first phase of a five-year rotating
exhibition of large, outdoor sculpture this summer, there was a campus
security report of art vandalism to Robert Huff's "Transit of Venus." That
turned out to be an "instability" in the gameboard-like installation of
limestone pieces on gravel, said Karen Gillenwater, director of art
galleries and curator of collections. 

University of Kentucky art department head Ben Withers said there has been
"minor" damage to public sculptures on that Lexington campus. 

"All that I have heard of is damage to one student sculpture that is sited
too near a corner with popular drinking establishments." 

It's a Friday/Saturday night thing, noted Withers. "We can never -- or
seldom -- prove who did the damage, but there seems to be a correlation
between damage and the breakup of a relationship." 

"I am not aware of any vandalism of our public sculpture," said Janie M.
Welker, curator of collections and exhibitions at the UK Art Museum, which
has a few big-ticket items outside the museum, including a kinetic abstract
sculpture by the late George Rickey. "Our Rickey was damaged in a windstorm
last summer, but no vandalism was involved," Welker said. 

Kentucky's lack of art vandalism may not mean that everyone's just polite,
speculated Withers. 

"Just look at the couches burned and neighborhoods trashed when the football
team wins. I think that the lack of vandalism would be the result of
effective placement of the work in highly visible, public spaces."