Boston

Boston art piece depicting crashed satellite vandalized

The suspect accused of damaging the exhibit in Downtown Crossing was described as a male wearing a black and white hat, black face covering, black puffer jacket, jeans and tan work boots

NBC Universal, Inc.

Police say a man tore a satellite from the hood of a car that was placed as an art piece.

A downtown Boston art installation was vandalized earlier this week, according to a Boston police report.

The art installation on Washington Street, part of the city's "Winteractive" exhibition, looks like a parked car that's been smashed by a satellite fallen from the sky. The "damaged" car has been delighting -- and confusing -- people for a few weeks, but police say on Wednesday someone decided to do some damage of their own.

Brandon Vickerd, the artist who created the piece, says no one informed him that his work was vandalized.

"Nope, I have not received any communications about that," he said. "I'm a little bit shocked and dismayed to hear that somebody has interacted with the piece in that way."

The Boston Downtown Alliance, which maintains the exhibits, told NBC10 Boston Friday evening that the satellite had not been stolen and is in the organization's possession. The alliance was short-staffed this week due to an illness going around its office.

"We have not yet had a chance to be in touch with the artist, but there is no damage to the satellite that would prevent its easy reinstallation when we have the staffing capacity to do so," a spokesperson said.

An art piece showing a car crushed by a satellite in downtown Boston is turning plenty of heads.  Follow NBC10 Boston: https://instagram.com/nbc10boston https://tiktok.com/@nbc10boston https://facebook.com/NBC10Boston https://twitter.com/NBC10Boston https://bsky.app/profile/nbcboston.com

According to the police report, officers were called to the area around 10:40 a.m. Wednesday after a witness reported that a man ripped the satellite off the hood of the car and dragged it along the ground, then ran off. The bracket that was holding the satellite in place broke and the mount on the car was stripped.

The suspect was described as a male wearing a black and white hat, black face covering, black puffer jacket, jeans and tan work boots. He left the area around 10:15 a.m., heading down Winter Street.

Police say there is surveillance footage showing the suspect in the act.

Vickerd says the piece, called "Alouette," was placed during the first week of January.

"When people come across this work, the first thing they do is look to the person beside them and ask them if they're seeing the same thing."

He explained that the piece was a replica of a 1962 Canadian satellite, and that he might be willing to recreate it.

"I'm always interested in creating new satellites, and new installations," he said. "Once we sort things out, we'll see what happens, and maybe we can do another crash of some kind."

Contact Us