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It was, by most standards, a short stay. The ephemeral metal monolith that became the center of international attention after being spotted in a remote part of the Utah desert on November 18 was dismantled 10 days later. Government officials continued to insist on Monday that they had no information about the installation or removal – and possible theft – of the piece, which had been placed on public land.
The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office initially said it was refusing to investigate the case in the absence of complaints about missing property. To underscore this point, he posted a “Most Wanted” poster on his website, or rather a funny version of one in which the faces of the suspects were replaced by nine big-eyed aliens. But by the end of Monday, the sheriff’s office had reversed its position and announced that it was planning a joint investigation with the Bureau of Land Management, a federal agency.
It has been left to adventure photographer Ross Bernards to leak evidence on Instagram. Mr Bernards, 34, of Edwards, Colo., Was visiting the monolith on Friday night when, he said, four men arrived as if they had come out of nowhere to take the sculpture apart. Mr. Bernards had driven six hours for the chance to ogle the sculpture and take some spectacular photographs. Using high-end Lume Cube lights attached to a drone, he produced a series of bright, moonlit images in which the monolith sparkles against the red cliffs and the deep blue of the night sky.
Suddenly around 8:40 p.m., he said, the men arrived, their voices echoing through the canyon. Working in pairs, with an undeniable sense of purpose, they punched the monolith hard and it began to tilt towards the ground. Then they pushed him in the opposite direction, trying to uproot him.
“That’s why you don’t leave garbage in the desert,” one said, suggesting he viewed the monolith as an eyesore, a pollutant to the landscape, according to Bernards.
The sculpture came out and landed on the ground with a bang. Then the men broke it into pieces and carried it in a wheelbarrow.
“As they walked with the pieces, one of them said, ‘Leave no trace,’ recalls Mr. Bernards in a telephone interview.
He did not photograph the men who took the sculpture apart, saying he feared a confrontation with them and feared they would be armed. But a friend who accompanied him on the trip, Michael James Newlands, 38, of Denver, took some quick photos with his cell phone.
“It took them 10 or 15 minutes at the most to overturn the monolith and remove it,” he told The New York Times. “We didn’t know who they were and we weren’t going to do anything to stop them.” He added, “They just came to perform and they were like, ‘This is our mission.'”
The photos are blurry, but they fascinate nonetheless. Here are images of several men working under the cover of darkness, wearing gloves but not masks, standing above the fallen monolith. We can see its interiors on display. It is a hollow structure with a plywood frame.
The photographs are the only known images of the culprits who removed the sculpture; it might not be the same people who installed it in the first place. Lt. Nick Street, a spokesperson for the Utah Department of Public Safety, said last week that the monolith was embedded in rock.
Over the past few days, artists had casually speculated that whoever had mounted the sculpture likely took it apart once it was discovered, as if aspiring to be anonymous artist-activists, the Banksy of the desert.
But speculation on the art world had not produced too many facts. Initially, the monolith was linked to John McCracken, a California-born artist who died in 2011 and harbored a taste for science fiction. David Zwirner, the New York art dealer who represents the artist’s domain and who first identified the monolith as an authentic McCracken, appeared on Monday to tell The Times that he had studied the monoliths. photographs and that he had no idea who had done it.
Almine Rech, who represents the artist in her galleries in Paris and Brussels, also contacted a reporter to deny that the desert monolith was a McCracken.
And news spread about the sighting of an imitated monolith in the hills of Romania.
All of this doesn’t leave us one iota closer to solving the mystery of Utah sculpture.
On the bright side, the monolith that captivated the country over the past week, then vanished as soon as it entered public consciousness, continues to provide a pleasant feeling of uncertainty. Would he lose his aura and power if we knew who created him?
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