Who would steal a work of art called 'Honesty' ?

[ron_newman]

Seven months ago, my friend Pauline Lim placed nine 'Urban Shrine' assemblages all over Somerville, most of them outdoors. She published their GPS coordinates and challenged geocachers to find all of them.

Last night, after the Redbones Bike Party, she strolled down Holland Street to show another friend the shrine she had placed closest to Davis Square:

(click on the small picture to see a much larger one)

But when she reached the place where it should have been hanging, she discovered that someone had stolen it from the chain-link fence just to the left of Dave's Fresh Pasta.

The name of the missing shrine? 'Honesty'.

If you find Pauline's work of art anywhere -- a trash can, a recycling bin, a yard sale, a flea market -- please tell both Pauline and the Somerville Police immediately. You can reach her at lim at PaulineLim.net. Thank you.

(Earlier davis_square posts about Pauline's 'Geocaching Urban Shrines' project are here and here.)

Comments

[ronhaha108.livejournal.com]

It's awful if someone stole this, but I'm just curious if she got permission to hang it on that chain link fence, maybe the owner removed it.

[ron_newman]

Yes, she got permission from Dave's Fresh Pasta and from everywhere else that she placed these. She has already asked at Dave's but they don't have it.

[bostonartist.livejournal.com]

Ron.. as a long time Somerville resident, are you really surprised? If you leave pretty things (especially with questionable ownership) hanging around various parts of Somerville, someone will eventually take them.

[duffless2323.livejournal.com]

I'm not shocked in the least, its sad but was bound to happen. I'm curious if it's even considered theft. At what point is something stuck to a fence theft and at what point is it just up for grabs like the other random stuff people leave in front of their houses or stuck to fences for free (i see that all the time).

[squirrelitude]

It's definitely theft! The artist got permission to attach the piece to private property.

[duffless2323.livejournal.com]

But you have to keep in mind that "private property" is the outside of a chainlink fence, in what appears to be public property and is next to a random business that is seemingly unaffiliated with anything shrine-like. I am saying I can easily see a random person walking by and grabbing it, they don't know an artist got specific permission to hang it there. If you stick something to a fence in front of a person's house it's more clear that it belongs to someone and is there for a reason. If I were the artist I'd put a plaque or something under it explaining what it is, or maybe the mystery is part of the fun.

[ron_newman]

I wish she had put a small tag that said 'PaulineLim.net' under each shrine, but she didn't choose to do that.

[pakoo.livejournal.com]

I wish she had glued razor blades to the back.

[redknot.livejournal.com]

Yeah, as lovely as it is (and it is very lovely), street art gets stolen or defaced or painted over all the time. Isn't that part of the nature of the medium?

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

This.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

It's not just "street art", it was something secured to private property that happened to be street-facing. That's like saying you should expect to have your mailbox or garden plants, or your store's pretty sign stolen. (Which also happens, but when it does, I don't see people victim-blaming.)

[ETA: Which is to say, this was not "guerilla art", which is what you seem to be describing.]

[http://users.livejournal.com/_meej_/]

This really is too bad. I'll keep my fingers crossed that, somehow, it turns up.

That said, I can't help but think that if Pauline does replace it with a new piece, it almost certainly should be titled "Irony" in tribute to the old one's fate...