An artwork by Venezuelan kinetic artist Carlos Cruz-Diez was sold as scrap metal by the local authorities in the French town of La Roche-sur-Yon, Ouest France reports. The Conseil General claimed that the piece, which was located near a high school, was in such a bad state that it was threatening to collapse. They got rid of it during the Easter Break.
Entitled Colonne Chromointerférente, the six meter-high steel and glass piece had been in place since 1972. Local art dealer Didier Soulas says it was worth in the region of €200,000 ($295,279).
Cruz-Diez didn’t take the scrapping of his work kindly. In an open letter entitled “The Insignificance of Art,” he wrote: “For those who asked for the destruction of my Colonne Chromointerférente, art doesn’t exist and has no value. Otherwise, the piece would have been better maintained.”
The artist also wrote he could not have imagined this would happen in a country “considered by all as cultured and supporting of the arts.”
The Conseil General said: “it won’t happen again.” They also committed to commission a new artwork for the school, as well as for all the other high schools to be built in the region in the future.