Thieves take the Lost Dog for a walk one night
The Daily Telegraph
A BRIGHT red sculpture of a “lost dog” has been stolen in the still of night from La Piadina cafe, Bondi.
The unlikely thieves of the Gillie and Marc Lost Dog – which had stood almost as a watchdog over the Glenayr Ave cafe for six months – were two young women aged in their 20s.
CCTV footage shows the two women walk past the 60cm sculpture at 3am, stop, ponder, then decide to steal.
Fausto Zizioli, co-owner of La Piadina, said he couldn’t believe it when he saw the video: “It (the sculpture) was glued down with heavy duty glue,” he said. “There were two of them, they pushed it up and took it away.
It was 30kg that thing, it was quite heavy, so I am surprised that they could easily walk away with it.”
Mr Zizioli said the girls were likely locals, mostly because the video showed them carrying boxes.
“You don’t walk around Bondi at that time of night with boxes in your hands unless you are local.”
He urged whoever stole the fibreglass artwork to return it “no questions asked”.
“Just bring it back, put it in the lane and we will put it back together, the police have not been called.”
Mr Zizioli said he did not call police because the artists wanted to see how the community reacted, and if it would be returned. But he said he wanted it back.
The sculpture was donated as part of the Activated Walls project. The cafe encourages emerging artists to add to its street art vibe.
“Each month we change artists. We will be doing a lot for the next 16 months,” he said. “When it was Gillie and Marc’s month, six months ago, they did the walls and gave us a sculpture of the Lost Dog.”
Part of the Gillie and Marc concept is to test the honesty of Sydneysiders – and so far, we have failed.
The artists have donated 100 works and all but three have been stolen, according to their website.
Gillie Schattner said: “Marc and I are huge supporters of bringing art on the streets and making it really accessible. Honest to God, we never expected the works to go that fast.”
