'Tolerance' piece slated for removal
<p>County officials say the Tolerance sculpture at the courthouse is rotting away.(Photos by KEITH KINNAIRD)</p>
SANDPOINT — The “Tolerance” sculpture at the Bonner County Courthouse is slated for removal.
But the controversial piece of abstract art will quietly live on. The Bonner County Human Rights Task Force said a private citizen has expressed interest in taking possession of the piece.
The county is divesting itself of the piece because its timber legs are rotting away and its position is in the eventual path of expansion of the courthouse.
County commissioners Lewie Rich and Mike Nielsen voted on Tuesday to have the structure removed.
“There seems to be no opposition,” Nielsen said during the board’s brief discussion.
Nielsen said spoke with the sculpture’s artist, David Kraisler, and the human rights task force, which said it is in contact with an individual who was willing to remove the piece at no cost to the county.
The sculpture was donated to the county in 2001 as part of Celebrate Sandpoint, an event that was to serve as a counterbalance to an Aryan Nations plan to parade through Sandpoint.
Kraisler gave his blessing to the removal of the timber-and-steel installation on the courthouse lawn, saying the sculpture had served its purpose. The human rights task force has also raised no objection to its removal.
“We’re well within our rights to get rid of it,” said Rich.
The county will retain the bronze plaques that are affixed to the base of the installation, but has not decided where they will be displayed.
The abstract piece has drawn mixed reactions in the community. Some appreciated it for its unconventional nature, while others criticized it because they thought it surreptitiously depicted a sex act, a claim Kraisler has denied.