Tuesday, September 16, 2003

By Michelle K. Massie, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Nicole Bernabei arrived at work yesterday to find that the dinosaur sculpture she had spent 80 hours creating and designing was vandalized again.

	"Flossosaurus," created by Nicole Bernabei, was vandalized by someone who sawed off one of its horns. The dinosaur is on Fifth Avenue in Oakland. (Tony Tye, Post-Gazette) Click photo for larger image.

This time it was more than the minor graffiti and smashed props she faced before.

This time, someone sawed off one of the horns from the torosaurus dinosaur named Flossosaurus.

Flossosaurus sits in front of the dental offices of doctors Charles J. Miller, S. Rand Werrin and John W. Gruendel at 3506 Fifth Ave., Oakland, where Bernabei is a dental hygienist.

"I wasn't surprised," Bernabei said, "but I was very disappointed."

Bernabei, 27, a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, said the dinosaur was probably vandalized between Saturday afternoon and yesterday morning.

Ted Hermann, director of marketing for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, said 42 of the 100 dinosaurs have been damaged since they went on display throughout southwestern Pennsylvania at the end of May.

"Some of the damages have been intentional and some unintentional," he said. "A lot of the damages were what we call nicks and knacks that resulted from wear and tear, from people playing on the dinosaurs or pulling stuff off the dinosaurs.

"There has also been outright, wanton damage where there has been physical intent to destroy the dinosaurs," including the case of Flossosaurus, he said.

"It's people who are disrespectful of art work," Hermann said. "People do it thinking it's just a prank and end up causing serious damage."

Hermann said the Carnegie tried to place the dinosaurs in safe places but is relying on the public to respect the artwork.

Hermann said the dinosaurs cost $8,500 to $10,500 each to create, which includes artists' fees. He could not estimate the damage to Flossosaurus.

A replacement horn was ordered and Bernabei said it should not be difficult to repair.

Beginning this week, the dinosaurs will be collected and placed in a warehouse for repairs and polishing in time for the DinoMite Days dinosaur gala and auction scheduled for Oct. 18 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

More information on the event and the locations of the dinosaurs is at www.dinomitedays.org.

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