Statues Sculpture Link disappeared: “Bullying behavior of the municipality” versus “No permit”
According to the curator, this happened without his knowledge. He mentions the bullying behavior of the municipality. There are sixteen giant hares by the British artist Barry Flanagan, 14 hares have been removed and brought to a shed.
“We have placed them very carefully with a company from London. They are also insured for it. Now suddenly they are gone. I do not understand how that can be done so quickly. I also do not know where they are. It is disrespectful, because the sculpture walk is really appreciated,” says curator Alexander Tuteleers.
“This year they were on private property, in the Zwin. That’s owned by the Agency for Nature and Forests. There are also statues at Compagnie de Zoute. Of course there was consultation with those people. At the time of placement we had permission. We have who also showed it to the police and they did not intervene.”
According to the municipality, the statues were removed very carefully, without damaging them. The municipality disputes that the initiator was not aware of this. The images were there without a permit.
“Nature en Bos and Het Zwin have not given permission. The municipality also did not give permission. These are all involved authorities. It was very clear from a legal point of view that the images were there illegally,” says Anthony Wittesaele, alderman for culture in Knokke -Heist.
So the exhibition is over. It would normally run until mid-August. What’s more: the initiators themselves will have to pay the costs for removing and storing the images.