Controversial ‘Moon Dial’ Sculpture Facing Eclipse

After 18 months of public display and controversy, “Moon Dial” is scheduled to turn into a pumpkin on Halloween.

“We’re going to have a party on Oct. 31,” Beverly Hills City Councilman Allan L. Alexander said after he and colleague Vicki Reynolds instructed the city’s Fine Art Committee to have George Herms’ sculpture dismantled by the end of the month.

The two council members, vocal critics of the sculpture, had asked Herms to remove it soon after its unveiling last year, but the artist declined, arguing that the city was obligated to keep the assemblage of rust-encrusted grates, buoys and a winch in place for at least a year and a half. That was the minimum time agreed on when the city’s Fine Art Committee invited him to create “Moon Dial” for display in Beverly Gardens Park.

But now that time is up, and “at the direction of the City Council, we are asking you to make the necessary arrangements to remove the work,” Ellen Byrens, chairwoman of the art committee, wrote the artist in a letter made public last week. She added her thanks for “your generosity in loaning your work of art” and “your contribution to Beverly Hills’ fine art program.”

Herms could not be reached for comment, but he has said that he would like the piece to stay at its site, a park near the busy intersection of Santa Monica and Beverly boulevards and Palm Drive.

The artist said the sculpture would be left to the city as a memorial to George Slaff, a former Beverly Hills mayor who wrote a letter defending “Moon Dial” before his death earlier this year.

Herms also said that he has nowhere to put it.

But Alexander said the work would be trucked away for storage if the artist is not ready to pick it up by the end of the month.

“At least it won’t spoil the beauty of our park anymore,” he said.