Teen put piano on Fla. sandbar
Associated Press
MIAMI
The rumors can stop swirling: The baby grand piano that turned up on a Miami sandbar was burned to tatters by New Year’s revelers, then brought to its new home by a television designer’s teenage son who said Thursday he hoped the idea might help him get into a prestigious art school.
And now, it has been removed.
Captain John Nicholson with Biscayne Towing and Salvage said the piano was taken away but couldn’t give other details.
Florida wildlife officials had wanted it gone within 24 hours — or else the teen and his parents could have faced felony dumping charges.
Theories of the instrument’s origin had abounded, with some saying they saw helicopters and television crews hovering around the piano. Others tried to claim responsibility, but Nicholas Harrington, 16, had his endeavor on videotape.
Harrington said he wanted to leave his artistic mark on Miami’s seascape as the artist Christo did in the early 1980s when he draped 11 small islands in Biscayne Bay with hot-pink fabric. And if it helped the high school junior get into Manhattan’s Cooper Union college, that would be OK, too.
“I wanted to create a whimsical, surreal experience. It’s out of the everyday for the boater,” Harrington told The Associated Press.
“I don’t like it to be considered as a prank,” he said. “It’s more of a movement.”