Curious accident

Work of art mowed down – but who was driving?

The car drove directly into the sculpture on the traffic circle.(Bild: Manfred Wimmer)

A curious accident is currently keeping the police in Krems in Lower Austria busy: a valuable sculpture was damaged in the crash. The alleged driver was slightly injured and claims not to have been driving at all.

Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner described the project to erect the sculpture "Figure flat with three grapes" from the provincial collection in the middle of the traffic circle in front of the Landesgalerie in Krems-Stein almost two years ago as a "significant step towards making art visible in public spaces". Now the work by Bruno Gironcoli, one of the most important Austrian sculptors of the post-war period, is on its way to the restorer. 

This is because the sculpture was knocked over by a car on Sunday morning. For as yet unexplained reasons, the car left the road at Zellerplatz. The force of the impact caused the cast aluminum figure to tip over.

The car drove directly into the sculpture on the traffic circle.(Bild: Manfred Wimmer)

Mother and son accuse each other
The driver (41) was slightly injured - or at least the alleged driver. The 41-year-old is said to have told the police that she was not driving at all. Instead, her son (22) was at the wheel - who in turn claims the exact opposite. Neither of them were under the influence of alcohol and further investigations into the course of the accident are ongoing.

While the fire department has already taken care of the recovery of the car, the work of art is still to be recovered. Only then can it be examined in detail and the damage caused assessed.