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Downtown Sculpture Vandalism Is Not A Victimless Crime

“The imagery they defaced the sculpture with is very graphic and distasteful,” he said. “I had to go out there with my generator and diamond blade, and I had to recarve that area.

From: yankton.netDate: 2017-03-09 09:03:56Views: 746

For an artist, a finished work is a labor of love. The countless hours put into designing, creating and finishing the work is a gift to all who will view it.

That is why, with pride, Scott Luken took family members who were visiting Yankton to view his sculpture “Fish Wish” on Friday.

But it turned into a disappointing surprise when he received a phone call Saturday saying the sculpture, valued at $14,500, had been vandalized with permanent ink.

“I was there in the evening (Friday) showing some family that was in town the sculpture and the (graffiti) wasn’t there,” Luken said. “It was mid- to late afternoon and the next afternoon, my nephew and brother were walking their dog on the bridge and they were looking at the sculpture and saw the markings on there. It was very bold and in your face.”

The statue is part of Yankton’s Riverwalk, a program that brings outdoor sculpture installations to downtown Yankton and Riverside Park.

The goal of the program is to add art to Yankton that will inspire and entertain, give visitors a new way to spend time in Yankton and beautify the downtown area and other public places.

Unfortunately, it is not the first time statues along Yankton’s Riverwalk have been vandalized.

“In the past years, since Riverwalk began putting out the sculptures in the downtown area, we have had bronze sculptures get broken and bent, we have had quite a bit of damage,” Luken said. “It is really upsetting that a handful of kids — or maybe it is people that have enjoyed the bar too much — do damage to the sculptures. If there are people in the community seeing these things happening, they need to speak up or make the report.”

Luken said the artists have spent countless hours working on these pieces of art.

“Why would you destroy it?” he asked. “How would you like it if someone did something to your house or car? We did file a report of vandalism with the police. This is my personal property. Every sculpture down there is personal in the amount of time it takes to create, and it is how they make their living.”

Luken said the damage done to “Fish Wish” was done with a permanent Sharpie marker, with ink that does not fade.

“The imagery they defaced the sculpture with is very graphic and distasteful,” he said. “The thing is, when I was there this morning working on the statue to get that ink off of there, people don’t realize how far that ink is absorbed into the stone. In this case, it went in two to three centimeters into the stone, which doesn’t sound like much but you can’t get that out — it is permanent color. I had to go out there with my generator and diamond blade, and I had to recarve that area. I had to carve the ink away to get it off of there.”

Because the sculpture is valued at more than $14,000, Luken said it would be a shock to the pocketbook of the vandals if they were caught.

“They don’t realize what things cost,” he said. “If they were to have to sit down and pay for that sculpture, it is the price of a new car.”

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