Giant Thumbtack Stolen From North Carolina Gallery
When you say it out loud, this sounds as preposterous as it actually is. “Surely, no one will steal an 10-foot-long thumbtack from in front of an art gallery in Hickory, North Carolina, right?” Yet that is exactly what has happened at ATAC Gallery.
The ginormous, 40-pound thumbtack was created by Hunter Speagle. Speagle owns the gallery. The piece itself is more than twenty years old. Speagle made it his Savannah, Georgia garage in 2002. The now infamous thumbtack is made from acrylic, foam, and cardboard. Over the years it had been displayed in art galleries in New York, Boston, Atlanta, and Charlotte before finding its current home at the ATAC Gallery. Now, the thumbtack is the subject of what has to be a rare occurrence: an art heist in Hickory. Speagle is quoted by WTNH about his work, “I had a theory about what the thumbtack meant and how it meant in the art world. I saw myself as a tack being able to display artwork that people can see. The saying used to be that the art world is a bulletin board and I am a tack.”
Five days before it went missing, the thumbtack went missing, it was placed outside the gallery to make room for other artist’s work. Again, who would steal a 10-foot-long thumbtack? After last Wednesday’s theft, that is indeed a question worth answering.
Surveillance video appears to show a Jeep Wrangler pulling into the gallery’s parking lot at around 7pm last Tuesday. Apparently, ‘wrangling’ the thumbtack was not as easy as the perps thought as part of the piece broke off as the vehicle drove away. Seriously, NO ONE in Hickory noticed a large portion of a giant thumbtack atop a Jeep going down the road?! NO ONE thought this to be the slightest bit suspicious?
Speagle promises to make the thumbtack whole should the missing piece be found and recovered.
Visit A Strange Museum This Summer
In getting ready for today’s show, I came across a blurb about The Spam Museum. That’s right, you didn’t misread that. There is indeed a museum dedicated to spreadable pork shoulder and ham. I would have assumed it was in Hawaii (where Spam is like a crazy delicacy), but no, it’s in Minnesota? There’s a good reason for that, but more on that later. This got me to thinking though…what other “strange” museums do we have in this country? Hang on for this tour!
