Man Charged With Breaking 'Virgin Mary' Windows

[kskiska]

CLEARWATER - An 18-year-old man was arrested Monday on charges he used a slingshot to shatter office building windows some believed bore the image of the Virgin Mary.

Kyle Stanley Maskell was charged with felony criminal mischief and was jailed on $10,000 bond. No lawyer information for Maskell was immediately available.
If convicted, Maskell could face from one to five years in prison, police said.

In March, the three top panes depicting what appeared to be the Virgin Mary's veiled head were destroyed, with just shards of glass remaining in the window frames.

The image first appeared a week before Christmas in 1996 in what was then a home finance office, drawing almost 500,000 visitors within weeks.
Stretching almost 60 feet high and more than 20 feet across on nine bronze-colored glass panels, the image was evocative of a stained glass portrait of Mary. Shades of purple, blue, yellow and green washed across the mirrored surface and swirled into a robe-draped figure with downcast head.

Glass experts believe the image was created by a chemical reaction and corrosion of the metallic elements in the glass coating, but they could not explain why it took the shape it did.

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