Lighting Plus turns public egg-art into ads, are accused of vandalism

Art 'vandalised' by adverts down in Auckland, check out the many photos of the Newmarket art installation on Osbourne St which has changed from eggs to lightbulbs. Neither the Arts Trust, which owns the fibreglass sculptures, or the artist were notified about the proposed alterations, and they're not happy about it.

Emma Fox from Newmarket Arts Trust says the damage from the advertising "beggars belief".
"This is not just something you can fix in situ - they will have to be recoated. And I don't know what damage the screw tops have done but it doesn't look good," she says.
"No artist wants their artwork to be used in that flippant way. It's defacement."
She says as part of the creative industry the advertising professional should have had more respect for the artist's intellectual property.
"They know you can't ride roughshod over other people's creative ideas. So it's like they willingly and knowingly just decided they could do what they like."

Yep. That sounds like us evil ad-people. Hell, I've done it using a rock sculpture as background for a pun. Interacting with the environment where the ad will appear is fun....

Lighting Plus, who are the sender of the art-now-turned-ads say they will work with all concerned parties to make sure the alterations are safely removed. They planned the campaign carefully, and sought out permission from parties involved in advance. Somewhere communications lines got messed up as chief executive Ashley Church had been informed of the proposal but had not yet given official consent, when he went away on holiday his staff weren't properly briefed. Lighting Plus believed they had permission:

"It was really a positive thing, to bring a bit of joy to the area and add a bit of life. The fact we've offended people with it is just really regrettable."
He says the agency had been dealing with the Newmarket Business Association and informed Lighting Plus consent had been granted to alter the sculptures.
"We would never have undertook this work if we'd known it had been without the proper people's permission. To be thought of as vandals in the area, it's unthinkable," Barlow says.