Thugs take a hacksaw to our spirit

By Jarvis Deberry, NEW ORLEANS TIMES-PICAYUNE

Art, by its very nature, is worth more than the ingredients that give it shape. A clay pot is worth more than the lump of clay from which it was formed, a painting more than the paint and canvas. Similarly, the bronze sculptures in John Scott’s eastern New Orleans studio were worth more than the bronze itself.

But to the thieves who used a bolt cutter, hacksaw and a hammer to dismantle Scott”s exceptional sculptures, his pieces were worth no more than their composite parts, worth no more than the going rate at the neighborhood scrap metal emporium.

The ransacking of the studio that Scott shared with artist Ron Bechet would be slightly less infuriating if we could believe the thieves knew what they were stealing — or if they’d been content just to steal. A heist — similar to the 2004 robbery that removed Edvard Munch’s paintings “The Scream” and “Madonna” from the Munch Museum in Oslo — would have been understandable, if no less criminal. Since Norway police recovered those paintings in August, museum officials have discovered moisture and abrasion damage. Even so, we can be assured that the masked gunmen who lifted the paintings from the walls of the museum knew what they were taking.

Not so our thieves. Their decision to hammer, cut and hack at Scott”s art is convincing evidence that they had no idea of its value. The art was the pearls. They were the swine trampling it.

There would be no good time — absolutely none — for an artist to have his life’s work violated. Even so, it’s hard to imagine that this crime could have come at a worse time for Scott. Exiled to Houston by Hurricane Katrina, a pulmonary fibrosis diagnosis has forced him to have two lung transplants. The first pair of lungs didn’t function.

In January, before he had had either operation, he spoke to columnist Lolis Eric Elie between coughs. Yes, his studio had flooded, but his paper and canvas works were mostly on the second floor. As for the first floor, the pieces there were made out of metal. They could be cleaned.

Bechet discovered the break-in Tuesday when he dropped by the studio with plans to check on things and do a little cleaning. He saw that his paintings had been scattered, that his friend’s sculptures were gone. As he told reporter Doug MacCash, “All I could do was scream. I was so angry I could feel the blood in my head. I had to sit down for a while.”

To think that Scott’s works will now be valued solely on their weight — that they”ll be tossed onto a heap with air conditioning units, mufflers, copper gutters and telephone wires — should prompt everybody who loves this city and everybody who has even the slightest appreciation of art to scream. What has this city become?

I haven’t seen as much of John Scott’s work as I should have. But the piece of his I saw in April 2001 I’ll never forget. It’s a metal sculpture of Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on Sept. 15, 1963. It appears at first sight that there are plumes of smoke rising from the building. But then one sees that what first appears to be smoke are the spirits of four little girls — killed by KKK dynamite — and rising heavenward.

I don’t know if that piece was pilfered too (or if it was even at the studio) but I do know that if it was, it could fetch two or three bucks easy.

“John’s in the hospital, this place is a wreck, and now people are trying to take stuff,” Bechet said. “I’m not sure how good this will be for his morale.”

I’m not sure how good it will be for any of ours.