LAGUNA BEACH : 3 Nude Statues Carted From Beach

A Santa Barbara activist art group left a message on the beach for the city of Laguna Beach at dawn Saturday. But it was carted away by Laguna Beach city workers before very many got to see it.

The message was in the form of three life-size nude male statues and a plaque, engraved: “Economy, AIDS, homelessness, prejudice, education . . . California! Let’s all rise to the occasion and meet these challenges together!”

The meaning of the painted cement statues--one bronze, one black and the other white--is self-evident, said Mike Garibaldi, a member of the art group Scultura.

“We can’t be segregated into our different areas and beliefs and races,” he said. “The statues represent the struggle of overcoming current social problems in our communities.”

Four members of Scultura planted the plaque and the statues--each weighing about 250 pounds--in the sand on Main Beach. The group wanted the sculpture to appear with the dawn to greet visitors to the beach.

Instead, city workers removed the statues a couple of hours later, declaring them “found property” on the beach, according to the Laguna Beach Police Department. “These nude statues were found on the beach; someone found them and municipal services took them away,” a dispatcher said Sunday.

The Municipal Services Department was closed Sunday, and officials could not be reached for comment.

Verna Rollinger, the clerk of Laguna Beach, said Sunday that “strict rules” govern the issuing of permits for placing things on the beach. “I’m not aware that . . . we have allowed anything on the sand except for volleyball nets that the (City) Council allowed for tournaments,” Rollinger said.

Garibaldi was nonplussed, saying the group had not sought a permit because that would have taken away the surprise. “We wanted them to wake up and see ‘there it is,’ ” he said.

Scultura did something similar in February in Santa Barbara, and the response there was favorable. “We chose Laguna Beach because it was supposed to have a reputation for tolerance and things that have to do with art,” Garibaldi said.