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GREENSBORO — When The Cemala Foundation commissioned Burnsville artist Ron Fondaw to install art on the Greene Street parking deck, they aimed to attract the eye and appreciation of passers-by.

As it turned out, the art also attracted vandals.

Over the summer, vandals stole, destroyed or damaged four of the 13 small ceramic models of vehicles that lined the garage’s low pedestrian wall on Greene and Washington streets.

Fondaw remade and repaired them for the project’s Aug. 21 gifting to the city. Cemala then hired a guard for weekend nights.

“But we couldn’t keep worrying about them,” Cemala Executive Director Susan Schwartz said. “And having a guard there seemed to be an unnecessary expense to continue week after week, month after month.”

So on Wednesday night, Erik Beerbower, project installation manager and local sculptor, removed the ceramic vehicles from the pedestrian wall. In the next few weeks, he will replace them with duplicates made of cement, their colors close to the originals.

Beerbower then will install the originals in the lobby of the Melvin Municipal Building across Greene Street. Cemala will pay for the changes.

“It’s a sad state of things when you try to do something positive and constructive for the city, giving them engaging artwork that is approachable and touchable,” Beerbower said. “Unfortunately, you also have an element that wants to vandalize.”

In June, Fondaw had decorated the six-level deck’s exterior with artistic features he created that illustrate transportation through the centuries.

The damage happened on four occasions in the early morning.

The motorcycle model was stolen. The covered wagon and a two-wheeled vehicle were shattered. A tanker truck was chipped.

The garage’s surveillance videotape shows an unidentified person smashing the covered wagon with a beer bottle, Fondaw said.

“I definitely think this is drunk people coming out of the bars,” Schwartz said.

Other parts of the installation are much higher off the ground and have not been damaged.

Robin Davenport, city parking operations manager, said the city is exploring what other security measures can be instituted in parking decks.

Because Fondaw is now teaching in St. Louis, Mo., Cemala hired Beerbower to create replacements and move the originals.

Beerbower said he hopes that the vandalism will not deter future public art projects.

“You have to be very mindful when you are putting art in public places that things can happen, so as an artist your job is to minimize the chances of it happening,” he said.

Fondaw said although he was disappointed by the vandalism, he remembers the interest of passers-by who watched him work.

“There were countless times that citizens came up, touched them, played with them, sat down and talked with me, and were very appreciative,” he said. “To me, that far outweighs the derelict actions of the other few.”

Contact Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane at 373-5204 or dawn.kane@news-record.com