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Dragon sculpture stolen from Nanaimo park

Nanaimo city officials are breathing fire after a 1.2-metre-tall aluminum dragon was stolen from a public park on Friday. The “Rock Dragon” sculpture by artist Heather Wall vanished overnight from Maffeo Sutton Park.
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A dragon sculpture that went missing from a Nanaimo, B.C., park is shown in a handout photo. Artist Heather Wall says she believes someone would have planned carefully to take the 35 kilogram, 1.5 metre wide aluminum dragon from its three-metre perch. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Heather Wall MANDATORY CREDIT

Nanaimo city officials are breathing fire after a 1.2-metre-tall aluminum dragon was stolen from a public park on Friday.

The “Rock Dragon” sculpture by artist Heather Wall vanished overnight from Maffeo Sutton Park.

Chris Barfoot, culture and heritage co-ordinator, said it’s disappointing that the culprits chose to deprive Wall of the opportunity to share her art with the public.

The dragon was one of 11 pieces installed in parks and public spaces this year as part of the city’s temporary art program.

“The artists don’t make a lot of money from it, so they’re doing it in a sense that they want to provide the opportunity for the community to view their work,” Barfoot said.

“It’s more about the sharing and what somebody’s done is taken that ability for Heather to share that piece. That’s the hardest thing to accept.”

Barfoot said the theft required considerable effort because the dragon weighs about 34 kilograms, has a 1.5-metre wingspan, and sat atop a 2.3-metre-high rock-and-steel globe.

“It took three staff to get it up there, so I would assume it was a difficult task to remove it — in the dark.”

Barfoot said it’s difficult to put a monetary value on the sculpture.

“Really the only value that could be attached to it, unfortunately, at this point would be the honorarium that we provide [the artists] with,” he said. “It by no means reflects the value of the piece.”

Wall received $4,000 for permitting Nanaimo to display “Rock Dragon” for one year.

City officials are urging anyone with information on the thief or whereabouts of the sculpture to contact Nanaimo RCMP.

Barfoot said he’s hoping, too, that thieves have had a change of heart.

“I’m hoping that they’ve had time to reflect on what they’ve done and they decide that maybe it wasn’t the best decision and it gets returned,” he said. “We’re asking that whoever has it, if they do have those feelings, that they can return it to any city facility, no questions asked.

”We really value the temporary art program here in Nanaimo as does the community. That was one of the community’s favourite ones, so we’d like to see it come back.”

lkines@timescolonist.com