An artist is offering a reward to anyone who finds and returns the head of his huge 10,000-GBP statue of comic-book hero The Hulk after it was ripped off by vandals.
The statue of The Hulk located in Switzerland’s largest city of Zurich was beheaded last week by an unknown perpetrator after it was exhibited in public on the request of the head of a nearby care centre.
The perpetrator took the head away with them, leaving just the body standing.
The statue’s creator Eric Pauli of Recycleart – which mostly uses discarded car and motorcycle parts to create statues up to 26 feet tall – said that he was shocked by the violence against his Hulk figure with an estimated value of around 12,600 CHF (10,025 GBP).
Pauli said: “We have been exhibiting the figures for eleven years, but something like that has never happened before.
“I am simply just sad. Doing such a thing is reckless and criminal. Hundreds of people have been taking selfies with the Hulk for the last few weeks.”
Pauli has now offered a 1,000-CHF (796-GBP) reward for anyone who helps solve the crime.
He taped a note on the beheaded body of The Hulk which read: “A disgrace. 1,000-franc reward for the clarification and recovery of this theft.”
According to Pauli, it will be difficult to make a suitable head as a replacement if the original is not found as the pieces are handcrafted by his team from spare parts in South-East Asia.
Pauli said he had filed a criminal complaint for damage of property and theft.
The Hulk is a fictional superhero created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby which appears in publications and films by the American publisher Marvel Comics.
In the comic books, Dr Bruce Banner, a weak and socially withdrawn physicist turns into his alter ego The Hulk after accidental exposure to gamma rays.
Banner often physically transforms into the Hulk at moments of stress leading to destructive rampages and conflicts.
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Story By: Koen Berghuis, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
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