I just noticed that the Jeff Rian article is also archived at:

http://home.att.net/~artarchives/artdolly/purple-diary/jeff.rian/orion_giret.html

The artist whose work was vandalized is the American artist Allan McCollum – five statues, made for the public of Montpellier … they had an interesting history before the vandalism:

http://home.att.net/~amcimages/allegories1.html

and

http://www.david-o.net/projets/bubblegum/

I know France has an interesting history of urban intervention and street action, but this is a bit nonsensical; does McCollum represent something to Rene Denizot and other academics of Paris that I don't understand? My sense is that he made these statues for the children of Montpellier, more than anything … he's well known for his critical stances, and also his populism. There's an interesting article on his work written by the popular young French critic and curator Jill Gasparina, so I think we can assume that Rian's oblivious position isn't shared by many:

http://home.att.net/~allanmcnyc/gasparina/mccollum_gasparina.html

Marcia