LACROSSE, Wis. – The artwork “Hatched Baby” cannot be fixed, says the German sculptor who created the statue and sent it to LaCrosse as a gift from LaCrosse’s sister city in Germany. The work was torn apart by vandals the night of September 11. Mayor Mitch Reynold sent pictures of the damaged work to artist Wolfgang Auer, who concluded it was beyond repair. The face of the baby emerging from an six-foot egg was torn off. Although the statue was discomforting to many people, the vandalism appeared not to be an artistic statement but the work of drunken hoodlums after a Saturday night at Third Street bars. The face was recovered the day after the vandalism, discarded a few blocks away. But Mayor Reynolds, after communicating with Auer, said there would be no attempt to restore the work. The base will be removed from the southeast lawn of City Hall, the mayor said.
Parental anxiety. Sculptor Wolfgang Auer sought to depict parental anxiety powerfully at the moment of birthing.