Worker mistakenly trashes art

Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn.

It was not the kind of public engagement that organizers of a contemporary art show had in mind: A wood and tile bench displayed in the shoreline town of Madison was removed, torn apart and put in a dumpster by a maintenance worker.

The piece, by New York City artist Jim Osman, was installed as part of the town’s annual Sculpture Mile event shortly before it went missing this week. The worker told organizers he used a hammer to take it down, believing it was not allowed in the plaza.

“He didn’t think it was art,” said William Bendig, founder and president of the Hollycroft Foundation, which sponsors the exhibition.

Bendig said a manager from the worker’s property management company told him that the employee believed the structure had been left behind by skateboarders. Bendig said the manager on Thursday offered financial compensation for the piece, valued at about $10,000, but the outraged Bendig has pressed for the worker to help put it back together.

The Sculpture Mile opened Monday for its 15th season with 22 works of art in Madison, a town of 18,000 people 100 miles from New York City. The event displays works by well-known American artists in styles from abstract to traditional.