Michigan artist says Lyon Township’s decision to cut down landmark sculpture was ‘vandalism’

Man in the City sculpture at Lyon Township's Atchison Park. Photo submitted by John Sauve.

Mystery solved — and it wasn’t the butler.

The township did it.

Originally thought to be the work of vandals , the cutting down of an iconic sculpture in Oakland County’s Lyon Township that can be seen off I-96 was actually a deliberate act by the township itself.

“It’s just a shame that this is the way it has to end because somebody decided to just gun it down,” Brighton artist John Sauve told the Michigan Advance . “They said, ‘You’ve been saying it’s vandalism,’ and I’m like, ‘When you don’t call me, it is vandalism.”

Sauve is referring to his “Man in the City” sculpture that had stood atop a hill at Atchison Park since 2011. Consisting of a 20-foot tall metal silhouette of a nondescript man in a suit and fedora, the 1,500 pound sculpture was visible to drivers traveling westbound on I-96. It was also listed as a landmark on Google maps .

Sauve says when he was initially told right after July 4 that the sculpture had been cut down, he naturally assumed it was due to vandalism, as he told WJBK’s Charlie Langton July 21.

“Someone took it down, and we’re trying to uncover that and come up with a plan,” said Sauve. “It took a lot of work. They were there for a while.”

However, three days later, Sauve received a letter from an attorney representing the township letting him know that the “they” who took it down was the township itself.

“The Township became aware that you have gone to several news channels claiming that the ‘orange man’ statue that was left in Atchison Park was vandalized,” read the letter from attorney Carol Rosati. “After the statue was installed, the Township received numerous complaints from residents who found the sculpture inappropriate and frightening to their children.”

The letter goes on to say that when the township revised its Parks and Recreation Master Plan in 2014, “the negative comments about the Art in the Park were discussed, and the concept of an Art in the Park program was deleted from the Master Plan,” adding that “at some point lights were added to the statue, which is located in close proximity to the airport.”

Rosati said the township “made contact with individuals to remove the sculpture,” but “no one took the steps to remove it,” adding that the “land where the sculpture was placed is Township property. As such, there is no right for anyone to place anything on that property without the continual approval of the Township.”

Sauve disputes that he, or anyone affiliated with him, was ever contacted by the township prior to the sculpture being cut down.

“I think this was just a kne- jerk reaction by one or two individuals that wanted to just see it gone, and thought they could do it over a holiday weekend and no one would notice,” said Sauve, who noted that the sculpture’s placement was originally facilitated with the assistance of John Bell, who formerly served on the township’s planning commission, and former Township Supervisor Lannie Young, both of whom have since retired.

“It’s too bad, but also it should be recognized that this is how things work over there, which sure seems like you’d want to go to committee and reach out to me because I would be very helpful. I would do whatever I could to seek a solution,” Sauve said.

A request for comment was sent to current Lyon Township Supervisor John Dolan, but has yet to be returned.

Sauve says the lights that were mentioned in the letter referred to were a pair of 300 lumen garden lights that were added last fall by a Sherwin Williams Paint representative who volunteered to repaint the structure.

“They rigged it at the top to face straight down, and I’m not sure, but I don’t think any planes crashed as a result of those because you could barely see them, as it was,” said Sauve, who added that if at any time the township would have said the lights posed a navigation hazard, he would have driven out himself and immediately removed them.

As for the contention in the letter that the sculpture was “frightening” to children, Sauve says he only ever heard one comment about that, which came the week after it went up in 2011.

“One woman called the township and said, ‘Hey, my son thinks it looks like Freddy Krueger, and it’s scaring him. He’s having nightmares,’ to which I told the township, ‘You’re going to get all kinds of reactions, and this is a good thing. People are noticing it. And if the woman calls back, my only question would be why are you letting your kid watch Freddy Krueger then?’ Because it’s not about the sculpture. It’s about what you’re letting him watch.”

Sauve also noted that a 2014 book about Lyon Township’s history co-authored by Bell specifically included a picture of the sculpture.

“It’s in the book that they wrote in 2014. Even though in 2011, they’re saying they want it removed. Well, why did you put it in the book? Does it make any sense at all?”, asked Sauve.

The sculpture in Lyon Township was the largest in the Man in the City International Sculpture Project that the Sauve Art Foundation first initiated in 2008. In the intervening years, more than 100 similar sculptures have been located on rooftops throughout the City of Detroit and Windsor, other cities throughout Michigan, as well as on New York City’s Highline and Governors Island.

“The Man in the City Project creates a metaphor for life that transforms the skyline and encourages people to look around. In the discovery process one becomes aware of their own sense of place within the City,” says the foundation website .

Sauve says in all the years Man in the City has been utilized, no one has ever asked that it be removed, or said that it was somehow inappropriate for children, including the YMCA in Detroit, where he is an artist in residence, the Windsor Youth Center, and the Detroit Neighborhood Service Organization , where it was even used as a fundraiser for the group.

Sauve says he hopes the township will reconsider what he sees as a shortsighted decision.

“They didn’t see any value in it at all and didn’t see that anybody would miss it from their perspective, whoever was in charge,” he said. “They just wanted it to go away quietly, and I’m going to do my best to make sure it doesn’t.”

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