One of the things that gets me throughly enraged is the waste of public money on so called “art” installations.KG posted a link to this article which is a texbook case of why city officials and council members should never be trusted with the control of public resourses.
“An anonymous arts donor wrote a cheque for $500,000 to complete the Lighthouse sculpture on Auckland’s Queens Wharf when construction costs went through the roof.
The Herald can reveal that the final cost of the controversial piece of public art – given a new bilingual name, The Lighthouse: Tu Whenua-a-Kura, by Maori artist Michael Parekowhai – is $2.5 million.
This is $500,000 more than the $2m price tag Auckland Council chief operating officer Dean Kimpton gave in June last year on the proviso some “outstanding construction-related costs” were still being negotiated with the contractor.”