A pink floating pig caused alarm on the opening day of the Galway Arts Festival yesterday, when it went missing from Eglinton Canal.
The resin pig was one of six made by French artist Anne Ferrer as part of an outdoor visual art display for the fortnight-long event. Entitled "Esther Williams" after the famous film star and synchronised swimmer who starred in Dangerous When Wet (1953), the six were installed on Monday to form a floating flower on the waterway near the city's new Millennium Park.
The alarm was raised early yesterday, when one of the six went missing. Several hours later, the pig was discovered on the steps of the cathedral, with a large crack on its back.
Ms Ferrer, who was very upset at the theft, engaged the assistance of a local technician yesterday to effect repairs.
The Galway Arts Festival press officer, Mr Paul Fahy, said that the "kidnap" must have required great effort, as the pigs were pretty hefty and large and the waterway quite dangerous.
"We suspect that two people were involved," he said. The pig is expected to be returned to the installation today.
From Toulouse, Ms Ferrer is regarded as one of France's finest young artists and has been fascinated by pigs and things porcine since the early 1990s.
Pigs have appeared frequently in her work as a sculptor and in her numerous fibre art installations. Her work focuses on "the ambiguous relationship between humans, animals and floral species", according to her mission statement. She has exhibited recently in Venice, Paris, Seoul and Chicago.
