{"id":116406,"date":"2014-11-20T20:39:25","date_gmt":"2014-11-21T03:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/head-honcho-behind-dino-mystery-revealed\/"},"modified":"2014-11-20T20:39:25","modified_gmt":"2014-11-21T03:39:25","slug":"head-honcho-behind-dino-mystery-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/head-honcho-behind-dino-mystery-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"Head honcho behind dino mystery revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Minna
Minna Jain, co-owner of Studio &, holds the now-famous dinosaur head that had been placed on the Arc of History sculpture at the intersection of U.S. Highway 550\/160. The dinosaur head will be placed on a silent auction by Studio & with the money raised going toward arts education at Durango Arts Center.<\/span>JERRY McBRIDE\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Last week, the dinosaur head that mysteriously appeared atop the Arc of History sculpture on Halloween only to be heisted just days later by teen bandits has escaped from the Durango Police Department\u2019s evidence locker.<\/p>\n

Apparently no longer criminal evidence, as of Tuesday, the dinosaur head stared out from Studio &\u2019s Main Avenue window, where the studio is flogging it to the highest bidder.<\/p>\n

Asked how the latest turn in the high-profile art scandal came about, Studio &\u2019s Tim Kapustka said last week that an anonymous artist contacted the studio and asked it to sell the dinosaur head.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were hell-bent on being anonymous,\u201d Kapustka said.<\/p>\n

Kapustka repeatedly denied knowing the artist\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

According to a Durango Police Department report by property technician Patricia King, on Nov. 10 someone called \u201cBenjamin Foisel\u201d claimed to be the dinosaur head\u2019s owner and creator.<\/p>\n

After Foisel gave police a long, detailed description of the dinosaur head\u2019s internal construction, police released the head to him.<\/p>\n

There are no phone numbers listed for Foisel in the Directory Plus phone book or the La Plata County voter registration database, which says Foisel was born in 1987.<\/p>\n

Sherri Dugdale said the city of Durango does not plan to press charges against Foisel for vandalizing public property.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a dud \u2013 a beheaded issue. It\u2019s over,\u201d she said. \u201cJust because we know who made the dinosaur head doesn\u2019t mean we know who placed it on the Arc of History.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the report, Foisel told police \u201che used a large ladder in the early (morning) of Oct. 31, 2014, and did not climb on the structure in anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report says King \u201cexplained to Foisel the potential liability of his actions and requested that he approach the city about any future actions of this nature. Foisel said he understood. The dinosaur head was later released to Foisel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite police encouragement, Dugdale said Foisel had not yet come to City Hall with his tail between his dinosaur head, let alone apologized.<\/p>\n

Time will tell whether other artists \u2013 emboldened by the impunity with which Foisel desecrated the Arc of History \u2013 will start blaspheming Durango\u2019s public artworks en masse.<\/p>\n

Studio & is selling the dinosaur head in a weeklong silent auction, with a starting bid of $100.<\/p>\n

Kapustka said proceeds would go to the Durango Arts Center, which will spend the money on arts education.<\/p>\n

Kapustka denied that the artist was using philanthropy to launder the profits of his crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like Robin Hood! They don\u2019t want to make any money off of it. Who doesn\u2019t want funding for arts education?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Asked whether Durangoans should avoid bidding on the dinosaur head for legal reasons, City Attorney Dirk Nelson said, \u201cI\u2019m not going to extend advice like that to anyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artist: \u2018Jurassic Arc\u2019 done with care<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":116407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5843],"tags":[363,13,167],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-116406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living","tag-arts","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-local-news-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116406"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=116406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}