NANAIMO, B.C.—A British Columbia artist built her dragon sculpture with wings, but she never thought it would leave its perch without her help.

Heather Wall says she thinks Rock Dragon 2.0 disappeared from a park in Nanaimo, B.C., sometime late Friday.

The spiky, aluminum dragon weighing about 23 kilograms was seated atop a rock and steel sphere and was mounted on a two-metre pole.

Wall says the dragon was installed at Maffeo Sutton Park at the beginning of June and had been leased for a year by the City of Nanaimo.

City spokesperson Chris Barfoot says it appears that a co-ordinated effort went into removing the dragon because there was very little damage to the base and no clear signs of vandalism.

Wall agrees the theft of the sculpture valued at between $12,000 and $15,000 must have been planned because it was spiky, heavy, awkward and hard to reach.

“He’s not a friendly thing to lift,” she says. “I’m suspecting that it took maybe two people to pull him off the globe. That kind of says at least two ladders, two people, some tools and some planning to walk in there because you can’t just drive up to it.”

She says it took three people to put the art work in place when it was installed.

The aluminum dragon with its wings outstretched and appearing as if it was about to blow fire was bolted securely.

“We figured it would be all right,” she says. “I hate people who steal things.”

Barfoot says that while there’s been some minor vandalism to public art pieces in the past, this is the first time anything has been stolen.

“This is a community program, it’s public art for everyone. It’s not reflective of what the community feels about this program.”

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While Wall was disappointed the dragon was gone, she wasn’t worried about it being damaged.

“I mounted that on a stand in the back of my truck and the dragon itself was well above the cab. And I went down the highway at 120 kilometres and it didn’t bother it a bit. People looked at me like I had three heads.”

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