Homegrown Art Torched as Detroit Tries to Preserve Old Masters

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-11/homegrown-art-torched-as-detroit-tries-to-preserve-old-masters.html



For 27 years, Detroit’s Heidelberg Project has stood as Tyree Guyton’s visual rebellion against blight, a two-square-block dreamscape of junk sculptures, polka dots on the pavement and vacant houses festooned with vinyl records and stuffed animals.

Now, someone is burning it down.

Eight arson fires since May have destroyed five buildings that were anchors of the art oasis on Heidelberg Street that draws curiosity seekers from around the world and busloads of schoolchildren from ravaged neighborhoods. The latest blaze, on Dec. 8, destroyed a vacant house decorated with painted clocks.

The possibility that the Detroit Institute of Arts will stage a sale of masterpieces by Picasso, van Gogh and Bruegel led to an international outcry and a $500 million fundraising effort. Meanwhile, the Heidelberg Project is going up in smoke in bankrupt city that last year closed almost half its fire stations temporarily or for good.

“You can’t ignore that someone is targeting this,” said Donald Dawkins, a spokesman for the city’s office of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which put up a $5,000 reward for those responsible. “The question is why and who.”