Vandals attack Batavia sculpture

This is why we can’t have nice things: Vandals damaged a sculpture in downtown Batavia Sunday.

Sometime between midnight and 6 a.m., somebody managed to pull the 8-foot-tall bronze sculpture “Self-Made Man” off its limestone base. The 750-pound sculpture was found lying on the sidewalk at its home at River and State streets.

The sculpture is still in one piece, although the head of the hammer the man wields was damaged by the fall. The statue had been secured to the limestone by stainless steel nuts welded to rods that were then screwed into holes with cement in the limestone.

The artwork was donated to the city in 1996. Private donors, including some River Street businesses, paid $36,000 for the work. It depicts a man chiseling himself out of rock. Colorado artist Bobbie Carlyle makes and sells the sculpture.

“That thing isn’t light,” said Batavia Police Det. Kevin Bretz, who is investigating the crime.

There is no estimate yet of how much it will cost to repair the statute, City Administrator Bill McGrath said. McGrath was one of the donors for the statue when he was a lawyer in private practice.

Sculptor Bobbie Carlyle was disappointed to learn of the vandalism, recalling fondly how Batavians came together to purchase the work and, up until now, had treated it “really well.” The statue has sometimes been anonymously decorated for holidays and sporting events, including someone who put a sweatshirt on the bare-chested man during a cold snap.

“I would hope people would not let them (the vandals) deter them from getting public art,” she said.