Is Rolde the target of a New Year’s Eve stunt? Iconic TT artwork disappeared

Does Rolde have the scoop on the first New Year’s Eve stunt of 2024, or is there more to it? The TT artwork The Zeitgeist of Racing has suddenly disappeared from its original spot on the Brink.

For the time being, Ben Ernens, chairman of the village interest group, shrugs his shoulders. “An end-of-year stunt? I think so, who else has an interest in…”, he asks the question rhetorically. “If it is indeed a joke, they eventually put it back in the same place. And that is often done politely. No, I am not worried yet.”

The colorful artwork from 2016 is a tribute to the history of TT Assen. The creator, Eiiz Gihili, shows the legendary driver Marc Marquez in his journey through the illustrious racing past of the TT.

The image in Rolde, together with several other works of art, is part of the ‘Horsepower Mania’ project, which refers to the history of racing in the Netherlands.

Whether the disappearance of the artwork is actually part of a New Year’s Eve stunt will become clear later. The disappearance could join an illustrious list of objects that were once looted by New Year’s Eve associations. Last year, the lifelike Vincent van Gogh was taken in Assen. Targets included Maya the Bee and Wickie the Viking at Plopsa in Coevorden, as well as a meters-high statue of Johannes van den Bosch from the prison museum in Veenhuizen.

With that thought in mind, Ernens assumes that the TT artwork will be back at the start of the new year. “I’m just counting on that. I’ll wait patiently.”

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