Christian Petersen’s sculptures are some of Iowa State’s most treasured pieces of artwork.

However, that didn’t stop someone from disrespectfully defacing his sculpture, “Conversations,” located outside the Oak-Elm Residence Halls.

The work of Christian Petersen is such a treasured part of Iowa State’s history.

In fact, that the university has designated approximately one million dollars over the next six years to conserve certain pieces of Petersen’s collection.

Yet, someone decided it would be funny to use colored chalk to scribble graffiti, color in the fingernails and dress the statues in underwear and a bikini to wish their friend a happy birthday.

“Happy Birthday, Brianna” was one of several messages scribbled on the statues.

Mary Atherly, collections manager for University Museums, said she was appalled that someone would even think of defacing such a valuable and symbolic piece of ISU.

Atherly said “Conversations” was originally designed as an entry into ISU’s campus.

The clean-up of the statues was very labor intensive and cost the university several hundred dollars, Atherly said, because they had to use a special soap and gentle scrubbing to avoid further damage to the piece.

Unfortunately, all of the pink chalk residue did not come off.

Atherly said she considers the incident to be vandalism.

Kathleen MacKay, dean of students, said the Christian Petersen sculptures are “priceless.”

She said defacing campus art with graffiti “is definitely vandalism” and prohibited under Section 15 in the Student Conduct Code of the Student Information Handbook.

Loras Jaeger, Director of Public Safety, said they will be looking into the incident.

Unfortunately, many students are unaware of the history and value of campus art.

I’m sure the people behind this incident didn’t realize how famous or valuable Christian Petersen sculptures are.

I’m sure they thought it was all in fun. Nevertheless, they could have done irreparable damage to a priceless piece of ISU’s history.

According to the Campus Art Program, Christian Petersen’s sculptures have been known and loved by the ISU community since the artist’s arrival on campus in the 1930s. Petersen was ISU’s sculptor-in-residence from 1934 to 1955.

While on campus, he created over 12 major public sculptures and numerous faculty portrait busts.

Many of Petersen’s works are found throughout campus, including the “Fountain of the Four Seasons” outside the Memorial Union, “The Gentle Doctor” outside the College of Veterinary Medicine, “The Wedding Ring” outside MacKay Hall and the recently vandalized “Conversations” outside Oak-Elm.

In the 1930s, Iowa State College President Raymond Hughes visioned the “arts would enrich and provide substantial intellectual exploration into our college curricula.”

Hughes offered Petersen a one-semester sculpture residency to create the fountain and base reliefs at the Dairy Industry Building. Petersen stayed much longer than one semester, however, retiring from ISU in 1955.

Since then, Petersen’s wife and daughter have added to Iowa State’s collection by contributing more sculptures and over 400 drawings completed by Petersen during his 21 years at ISU.

A primary tenet of public art is to have it physically and intellectually accessible to the public.

According to the Campus Art Program, placement within the context of public space accomplishes the first goal.

Providing intellectual accessibility, however, is the more challenging goal — a goal made even more challenging when disrespectful people with no appreciation for art go out of their way to deface university property.

It was a nice thought to wish “Brianna” a happy birthday. Unfortunately, they chose a very immature, disrespectful and expensive way to express their wish.

They should come forward and take responsibility for their actions.

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Jonquil Wegmann is a senior in community and regional planning from Bellevue.