Vandals damage sculpture by renowned Torre del Mar artist

A sculpture by Torre del Mar artist Paco Martín has been vandalised in the artist's home town.

The damage occurred in the early hours of Thursday 5 February at the roundabout next to the Mancomunidad association of town halls building, at the roundabout near Avenida Toré Toré.

'Utopia', popularly known as the sculpture of the girl and the moon, depicts a girl climbing a ladder crowned by a moon and a chameleon, all on a large white marble sphere.

The sculpture, which was inaugurated in 2007, was 3.5 metres high and made of bronze and aluminium. Following the attack, the upper part of the ladder, the moon and the chameleon have disappeared.

As the artist explained to SUR, several local residents alerted him to what had happened early in the morning after noticing the damage. "The value of these pieces as scrap metal is minimal, barely 25 euros, but the sentimental and artistic damage is enormous," Martín told SUR.

He went on to explain that the "girl climbing symbolises that dreams can be achieved from an early age if one sets one's mind to it and that one can reach the moon. The chameleon represented the ability to adapt to change and to what is always to come.

Vélez-Málaga Local Police have opened an investigation to try to clarify what happened and identify the perpetrators of this act of vandalism.

This is not the first time that a work by Paco Martín has been vandalised. The most serious previous incident occurred in May 2009, when the bronze mountain goat that the artist had installed in the Pinarillo de Nerja recreational area, in the heart of the Sierra Almijara Natural Park in 1999, was stolen. It has never been found and Martín says, "I am convinced that they dismantled it and sold it as scrap metal."

Throughout his career, Martín has created more than 70 sculptures which are scattered throughout Malaga province.

These vary from the mountain goats of Alcaucín and the Juanar viewpoint in Ojén to tributes to the miguero (olive picker) of Torrox, the farmer of Algarrobo, the marengo (olive grower) of El Morche and popular figures such as Chanquete, the fisherman from the popular 1980s TV series Verano Azul, King Alfonso XII on the Balcón de Europa and, most recently, the Virgen del Carmen, all in Nerja.

More than a dozen of his works are concentrated in Vélez-Málaga and Torre del Mar.

In the case of Torre del Mar, another sculpture by the artist - the popular figure of a dog urinating located on the Paseo de Larios - has also been damaged on a couple of occasions, although in those cases it was due to accidental collisions with vehicles. The attack on 'Utopia', however, once again highlights the vulnerability of urban artistic heritage to vandalism.