A 12-foot-tall bust of Elon Musk in Texas was defaced over the weekend, in line with the proprietor of the property the paintings is positioned on.
The landowner, Eleazar Villafranca, told ABC News that passerby alerted him on Saturday to the harm, and, on Monday, he confirmed in-person deep gouges on the bust’s eye, chin, and again.
“There are like three or 4 items they minimize with a knife,” Villafranca stated, including that it was constructed out of a rubbery materials.
The work has been sitting on Villafranca’s property for near a yr, he stated. Villafranca stated that he reached out to the artist behind the bust relating to the vandalism, however having obtained no response, requested one other artist to restore the paintings.
The Cameron County Sheriff’s Workplace was additionally notified of the incident, although no suspect has been recognized.
The statue seems to be the identical one which was towed behind a Tesla Cybertruck in Brownsville, Texas final summer season. On the time, a French tech entrepreneur who glided by the identify “Louis XXII” told ARTnews that he had commissioned the work to carry visibility to a viral meme of a nasty drawing of Musk posted on Reddit six years in the past.
That is solely the newest in a string of vandalism concentrating on symbols of the Tesla CEO and White Home advisor since he successfully took management of the Trump administration’s Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE). On the helm of DOGE, Musk has pursued dramatic federal employees reductions and broad funds cuts whereas invested hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in a conservative candidate for Wisconsin’s Supreme Court docket election. That courtroom is about to deliberate on a lawsuit relating to opening Tesla dealerships within the state.
The Trump administration, in the meantime, has devoted important sources in direction of pressuring arts and tradition establishments to align with its priorities and beliefs through executive orders and funding cuts. Staffers on the Institute of Museum and Library Providers, which offers sources to museums and libraries throughout the US, were put on leave by DOGE earlier this month. Additionally this month, DOGE reccomended that the Nationwide Endowment for the Humanities minimize as much as 80 % of its employees, and lots of grant recipients reported recieving cancellations of their grants.
