Spooky cows

[Gob]

Milton Keynes' famous concrete cows could be permanently moved after recent vandalism turned them into skeletons.



The three cows and calves in Bancroft were painted as skeletons overnight last week, The Parks Trust, the charity which maintains them, said.

The charity said it was going to cost £2,000 to repaint the sculptures and in the long-term believed they might have to be moved if the vandalism continued.

A spokeswoman said it had reported the recent damage to the police.

The cows were made in 1978 as a leaving present from the Milton Keynes Development Corporation - which oversaw the building of the "new town" - and The Parks Trust was put in charge of maintaining them.

Since they arrived they have been stolen, beheaded, painted pink and had pyjamas and "BSE" painted on them

[Rick]

Cows that aren't moving generally turn into skeletons...

[MajGenl.Meade]

I really don't know why the Parks Trust makes such a fuss. Here they have art with which the community is interacting on so many levels - beheadings, cownapping, pinked, pj'd, socially commentaried and now flipped inside out. This is success!

All they have to do is leave the cows alone. One day someone will want to paint them a different way and the skeletons will be gone, to be replaced with ..... whatever creative minds come up with. Portraits of Lady Gaga would be suitable.

This isn't vandalism at all - it's art!

For once

Meade

PS the bloody things are awful as was. Civic improvement is to be commended

[oldr_n_wsr]

I think they look cool as skeletons.

[Sue U]

This isn't vandalism at all - it's art!

I agree that it's art. And rather good art, from the photo. But I think the question is, should one artist be permitted to appropriate the work of another for his/her own expression? Perhaps the Parks Trust could allow the public to apply for permits to display work on the cows. That would keep it interactive with the community and provide a little more control to ensure no actual damage is done.

[Joe Guy]

Perhaps the Parks Trust could allow the public to apply for permits to display work on the cows. That would keep it interactive with the community and provide a little more control to ensure no actual damage is done.

Good idea.

They might as well milk it for whatever they can get.

[Lord Jim]

They're too much trouble; they should just take them down and dump them in The Straits Of Hormooze....

[Gob]

That would be udderly wrong Jim.

[TPFKA@W]

Bring in Cows with guns.

[Sean]

Anything done with a pot of paint in Milton Keynes can only be an improvement.

[Lord Jim]

I think they should leave them that way at least through Halloween....(the proximity of which I suspect was the inspiration for the paint job in the first place.)

Then maybe for the Christmas season they can paint them to look like reindeer....

[Gob]

For a encore they could paint Milton Keynes so it blends into the background, or vanishes altogether.

[Jarlaxle]

OK...how the FUCK did someone do that and NOBODY SAW IT?! That had to take a couple HOURS, I'd say!

[Sean]

For a encore they could paint Milton Keynes so it blends into the background, or vanishes altogether.

Betjeman had a wonderful idea for Slough which I think would work equally well for Milton Keynes.

[MajGenl.Meade]

But then, no Office...

[Gob]

It's OK, we'd still get the US version.

No, hang about, that's not OK in any way shape or form is it?

[Sean]

Well let's leave Slough alone and demolish MK. Agreed?

[MajGenl.Meade]

...if you leave the cows alone, I'm OK with that.

[oldr_n_wsr]

No tipping?

[Sean]

No obligation to tip. The cows are paid a decent wage in the UK.