Latest news with #bronzesculpture
The Guardian
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Who's that girl?: the stolen statue mystery that led from the Gold Coast to Sydney's northern beaches
Someone is stealing the art of the Gold Coast. Not paintings from galleries, but bronze sculptures, bolted to concrete in parks and public spaces. In one of the most brazen incidents, Sun Spirit, a beloved bikini-clad statue by the veteran artist Frank Miles, vanished from its plinth at Currumbin beach during Cyclone Alfred four months ago. Locals believe the noise of the storm camouflaged the rowdy business of separating the 100kg bronze statue from its anchor points with an angle saw. 'I've got four public works on the Gold Coast and three have been stolen,' Miles says. 'One time, they just found the head at a scrap dealer. It looks like they're just taking them for scrap.' Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads But in an unexpected second act, the missing Sun Spirit appeared to resurface – almost 1,000km away, lounging by a swimming pool in a real estate listing for a property in Curl Curl, on Sydney's northern beaches. Tipped off by a Gold Coast real estate agent about the Sydney property listing, local surfie Nicka Atkins posted the sighting in a video on his Instagram account. 'Oh my God, are you kidding me? Look, I'm not accusing anybody of anything, but that sure looks like Sun Spirit to me,' he wrote, superimposing his body on to the Sydney real estate listing video. 'To say I've been waiting for this day for a long time is an understatement. Have a look at this … Come on viewers, tell me is that the Sun Spirit statue sitting down in beach in a real estate video right now. Are you kidding me?' The sculpture's apparent reappearance triggered a wave of online speculation and media frenzy. The Gold Coast dining precinct Oxley offered a $5,000 reward for information. Atkins made it on to Nine's The Today Show, offering a reward of two cartons of beer for more information. Soon accusations began to fly against the owners of the Sydney property, Annette and Brett Straatemeier. 'All of a sudden it was just ding, ding, ding – the phone wouldn't stop,' Annette Straatemeier says. 'People were tagging the police, calling us thieves, threatening to come take her back. It was wild.' Amid all the furore, no one contacted the artist or the homeowners – until Atkins himself sent a mate down south to investigate. The Straatemeiers swore they had bought the sculpture from Miles nearly 20 years ago. The artist confirmed the provenance, saying he had cast three Sun Spirits, modelled from his daughter but larger than lifesize, and had sold one to the Sydney couple for $20,000, which they had affectionately named Sheila. The third iteration still stands in his studio. Rather than retreat from the chaos, the Straatemeiers leaned into the moment, looking for a way to transform the misunderstanding into something positive. Longtime supporters of the Starlight Children's Foundation, they decided to donate the sculpture to the Gold Coast council, to take the place of the stolen one, but only if $50,000 could be raised for Starlight. 'We thought, if everyone is so invested in this statue, then let's do something beautiful with it,' Annette said. 'The Gold Coast gets a sculpture back, Starlight raises money for sick kids, and Sheila gets a new life.' A contrite Atkins pledged to lead the fundraising drive. Sign up to Five Great Reads Each week our editors select five of the most interesting, entertaining and thoughtful reads published by Guardian Australia and our international colleagues. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Saturday morning after newsletter promotion 'Annette and Brett are these amazing, wonderful philanthropist people who raise all this money for Starlight Kids Foundation,' he says. 'We've become friends and I'm about to meet them for the first time next week when I come to Sydney, so that's going to be really cool.' 'We've done nothing, really,' Annette says. 'We just wanted to make some good out of a very strange moment. When life gives you lemons, make limoncello.' Miles, nonplussed about the spate of missing public sculptures in recent years, says he is deeply moved by the gesture. 'It's incredibly generous,' he says. 'I think it's a wonderful offer.' With bronze fetching about $4 a kilogram, he believes the thefts are motivated by money. 'It's not about the art for these people – it's about melting it down.' One of his other sculptures, Melody, has survived two attempted thefts, though not unscathed. 'She used to have a bugle,' he says. 'Now she's only got half of one.' The Gold Coast mayor, Tom Tate, declined to discuss the spate of thefts. A Gold Coast councillor, Gail O'Neill, says a large bronze pelican mounted on a timber pole in nearby Robert Neumann Park has also vanished since Sun Spirit's disappearance in February. Gold Coast police say investigations continue.
RNZ News
06-06-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Mt Pleasant residents 'devastated' at theft of $95k bronze bird sculpture
The large bronze bird sculpture when it was installed in 2023. Photo: Supplied The theft of a $95,000 bronze sculpture by Llew Summers from a Christchurch community centre has devastated locals who fear the prized artwork will be sold for scrap metal. Mt Pleasant community members raised their own funds to buy the 2.2 metre-long and 2.2 tonne sculpture named Flight, depicting a large bird, in honour of the late artist who lived in the seaside suburb. Sculpted in 2018, the artwork was installed on a plinth outside the centre in 2023 at a cost of around $125,000. On Friday morning the plinth sat empty, surrounded by tyre marks coming from the road and community centre car park. Mt Pleasant Community Centre president Derek McCullough said he first became aware the sculpture was gone after someone noticed it was missing on their way to work. He said the sculpture was inspired by the nearby estuary and the last big bronze work Summers made. "Llew was a local resident who lived here most of his life and had his funeral here, which was an amazing event. 'So it was a tribute to him and on that basis, the locals got together to raise money to buy it," he said. "[Flight] was just a lovely piece that reminded us of his presence around here, and also that we live on the side of an estuary with 30,000 more birds beside the big one he made. "We are just devastated that someone decided to steal it." Mt Pleasant Community Centre president Derek McCullough standing next to the empty plinth where the stolen sculpture once sat. Photo: RNZ / Joe Shaw McCullough said he had not been able to establish when or how the sculpture had been stolen because there was no security camera footage. He hoped a member of the public saw the thieves but was not optimistic the sculpture would be found. "Because of its size and weight, it would have taken quite an exercise to get it. With thousands of cars passing a day, we're hoping one of them might have seen something happening," he said. McCullough said someone likely stole the sculpture because of the scrap value of bronze. "I've contacted the Association of Metal Recyclers and put in a report, hopefully that might stop that particular avenue. "Otherwise, who knows? Maybe it's an unscrupulous art collector who decided they'd like it in their backyard or that they could sell it to someone just as unscrupulous," he said. Police confirmed they received a report on Friday about the stolen sculpture but they were yet to identify any offenders. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
