Argentina is suffering from vandalism, the most recent case of it was awful: country’s musical icons became targets of vandals, JournalGazete reported.
The broken statues are resting in a hospital of a sort, where the 2,200 statues and monuments that dot Buenos Aires’ parks and plazas are brought when they have suffered vandalism or decay. A headless Anibal Troilo, one of the tango’s greatest performers, rests on a seat holding his concertina. Beside him, tango singer Alberto Castillo smiles, though he lacks arms.
At the workshop, more than a dozen restorers repair stone and marble, clean away graffiti and mold missing appendages.
“We’d like to have less of this and focus only on preservation of outdoor works, restorations that would be due to age, and not to damage done intentionally,” said Jorge Grimaz, who coordinates operations at the city’s Monuments and Artworks shop.
The abundance of statuary and monuments, many acquired in France at the beginning of the 20th century, helps set the Argentine capital apart from other Latin American cities. Pollution and the humidity of the Argentine capital located on the banks of the Rio de la Plata, affects the sculptures. But vandalism is by far their worst enemy.
A copy of Auguste Rodin’s “The Thinker,” located in the square in front of the Argentine Congress, has suffered the wrath of demonstrators who gather there to protest against politicians. The statue, cast in bronze from the original mold and signed by the French sculptor, was recently elevated on a pedestal to keep it away from the spray paint after a fence failed to safeguard it
