(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Art Fri 26 May 2023 14.09 BST
A 49-year-old man from Florida admitted to having hit a large blue sculpture of a rabbit called Thunderbunny, created by American artist Hunt Slonem, with his car. The work is valued at $300,000 and lived in Justin Flippen Park at Wilton Manors, just north of Fort Lauderdale in the Sunshine State.
The man, Derek Alan Modrok, also admitted to damaging another sculpture, a popsicle piece made by Craig Berube-Gray, which was in Rachel Richardson Park. Authorities quickly arrested Modrok after finding CCTV of him performing the deed.
Hunt Slonem discovered the vandalism when NBC Miami contacted him for comment. He recently spoke to ARTnews about the incident and noted that it was not the first time he had lost one of his works.
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“9/11 was worse; I lost an 80ft mural,” he said. “I was just shocked. It’s just such a weird thing, the fact that it’s happened before and the fact that it’s happened again.
The artist now looks at the work to see if it can be repaired. Modrok said he targeted the statue because the park it is in is named after a former mayor who released many birds.
“It’s really weird because I’m a bird fanatic,” Slonem added. “I have a lot of pet birds, up to a hundred, and this guy didn’t like the mayor because of all the birds?”
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