A couple weeks ago during Art Basel, the news was all about fruit as art — specifically a banana duct-taped to the wall that went for $120,000.
But there was other fruit-related art news in South Florida at the same time that didn't get quite as much attention.
This involves the sculpture of a pineapple. Key West artist Cindy Wynnmade it for a friend who had opened a store called The Green Pineapple.
"I, just off the top of my head, said, huh. I could make her a green pineapple out of railroad spikes," Wynn said.
Wynn's work uses really heavy pieces of metal, like gears and plates from industrial machinery. She cut up about six feet of two-inch pipe to be the leaves at the top of the fruit.
"Each railroad spike weighs a pound and then the core weighed 20 pounds so, at least 250 pounds," she said. It sat in the window of the store for years, not for sale and a one-of-a-kind piece.
Until Dec. 3, the same time as Art Basel was going on up the road. At about 4 a.m., someone threw a big rock through the store's front window. The only thing missing was the pineapple.
When Wynn heard about the theft, "I thought, 'Wow that's too bad,' because I can't make another one of those," she said. "I did try one time to make another one and it was just a pale replica."
And it hasn't turned up. Wynn asked around at the local scrap yards — she was worried that since it was painted green, the thief thought it might be made out of bronze. It's actually iron so it's not so valuable.
"Unless it has an anchor chain around it. It could hold down a pretty decent-sized skiff," she said.
