More than 100 golden mini-Wagner statues that were installed in front of the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth have been stolen by unknown miscreants.
The artist Ottmar Hörl says they are 49 centimeters high.
Watch out for runaways Wagners.
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You can see a photo of the Bayreuth installation at the url below. The artist, Ottmar Hörl, has done similar installations including one of Karl Marx. More controversially, he’s also created one of Gartenzwerge (garden dwarfs) giving a Hitler salute–no doubt meant as a parody. As is his usual practice, he planned to sell the sculptures after the Bayreuth season was over. The Bayreuth installation was supposed to be under 24 hour guard. Hörl is an art professor in Nuremburg.
The Bayreuth installation:
https://www.merkur.de/kultur/neuer-bayreuther-parsifal-jubel-fuer-einspringer-zr-92423383.html
Gartenzwerge Hitler salute:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/garden-gnomes-give-heil-hitler-salute
49cm high? A statue of limitations maybe but perhaps they’ve gone to keep Alberich company.
Probably a discerning collector – to add to his exquisite collection of golden Eiffel Towers and Big Bens.
Have they no security cameras onsite?
Thank you folks!
You can buy them here, in case you are looking for a souvenir de Bayreuth:
https://www.ottmar-hoerl.de/de/shop/artikel/119/Richard_Wagner_II.php
What were they doing there anyway?
Waste of funds.
And outdoor art sucks! Let the flowers and the grass and the trees be the focus.
Lighten up, you’ll suffer a coronary. It’s only plastic, after all.
Yassuh boss. You tell em. It doesn’t matter what others like, only what you like.
What else don’t you like?
Installed? Just loosely put into the soil on a pin.
Good PR. Long live the German Gartenzwerg-Wagner
I wonder if the thieves were in fact just people with good taste?
Very kitsch indeed. Perfect decoration for the living room of people who only listen to the cavalcade of the Valkyries or the overture to the third act of Lohengrin and say “I love Wagner’s music”.
You don’t have the faintest idea what you’re talking about, do you? Writing this from Bayreuth, my sixth visit, for the 23d and 24th Wagner production of my 2022-2023 season.
And your point is.. ?
Were they signed by the “artist”?
They could be replaced quite cheaply with garden gnomes.
Call them Nibelungen.
My sources tell me the miscreants thought they were capturing members of the Wagner Group.
“The last garden gnome sculpture has already been created. Order yours today for 80 euros” — Wagner’s Great Granddaughter
Hideous kitsch. Best removed from plain sight.
I bet that Alberich is behind this …
Relax all of you, just concentrate on the music. Who cares …?
By all accounts Richard Wagner was a midget with a big head.
And people accuse André Rieu of lacking taste.
Are they animatronic, like Mickey Mouse at Disneyland?
They should be searching the gardens of known neo-Nazi activists for golden Wagner gnomes. 🙂 😉