Reuters
An 80-foot-tall sculpture—officially titled “Tree” but resembling a butt plug—was brought down in Paris’s Place Vendome after its supporting cords were cut by vandals. The sculpture was part of a week-long International Contemporary Art Fair. “An unidentified group of people cut the cables which were holding the artwork, which caused it to collapse,” police said. The sculpture’s creator, American artist Paul McCarthy told French newspaper Le Monde that he had also been attacked by a man who said the sculpture had no place being on the street. “Paris will not succumb to the threats of those who, by attacking an artist or a work, are attacking artistic freedom,” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said. “Art has its place in our streets and nobody will be able to chase it away.”