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Posted on 11/11/2001 6:42:10 PM PST by Dumb_Ox

Dangling art stolen from library

By John Ingold
Denver Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 11, 2001 -

First they were hung out to dry.

Now they've been stolen.

A string of brightly colored ceramic penises that dangled from a clothesline in a controversial artwork titled "Hanging 'Em Out to Dry" was stolen Saturday morning from the Boulder Public Library, police said. In its place hung an American flag and a note: "El Dildo Bandito was here."

Artist Susanne Walker wasn't amused.

"If you want to attack me or my artwork, then confront me with discussion, that is the purpose of this type of art," she wrote in a statement hung in the gallery Saturday. "Debate fuels enlightenment and by stealing personal property . . . that was taken away."

Boulder police spokeswoman Jennifer Bray said the theft likely occurred sometime after the library opened at 9 a.m. Two library volunteers noticed the theft about 10:30 a.m., she said.

Investigators have taken the flag and the note into evidence, and are asking anyone who saw anything to call police.

The piece was part of an exhibit of work by battered women titled "Art Triumphs over Violence." The controversy over the artwork took shape after library director Marcilee Gralapp decided not to hang a large American flag in the building's entrance. She allowed flags to be displayed in other parts of the building. Detractors charged the library was displaying penises but not flags.

But Gralapp said she doesn't think the theft is the work of a daring social critic.

"If it was someone who was really serious about taking it out, they wouldn't have left that smart-alecky note with it," she said.

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