Zadar citizens reported that on Thursday around 1 pm, a young man destroyed the glass panels of the tourist attraction ‘Monument to the Sun’. The vandal fled on a bicycle, but the police were able to catch him quickly. 

In front of shocked passers-by, a man destroyed parts of the ‘Monument to the Sun’ in Zadar on Thursday, reports 24 Sata on May 30, 2019. 

“At 13:10, the Zadar police received many reports from citizens that an unknown young man was destroying the glass panels on the ‘Monument to the Sun’, and took off on a bicycle. At the moment there is one person linked to this event that is in police custody,” said Ivana Grbin, a spokesperson for the Zadar police, who added that the criminal investigation is in progress.

The police later added that they arrested a 25-year-old man and that the metal object he used on the monument caused a great deal of damage. The damage costs are said to be around 660,000 kuna. 

“I was shaken by these barbaric, vandalistic acts. We put in significant money for this project. This event shakes me as a citizen of the city administration, and as a citizen of Zadar. The whole installation was over 4 million kuna. The cost will be significantly higher than assumed. He allegedly did this with a part of the fence,” said the head of the municipal property management department, Tomislav Dubravko.

"I feel terrible and horrified by this fact. I'm sorry for that person, they obviously have serious problems, but it's like an elemental disaster, you cannot do anything but regret it. I do not know what made the man do this; it is mind-boggling. It will be repaired, but it is traumatic that we have to deal with this kind of problem at all,” said ‘Monument to the Sun’ architect Nikola Bašić, adding that this installation on the top of the Zadar peninsula was recently reconstructed, but did not know the exact amount of damage and the price of the frames because they include both supply and assembly.

The ‘Monument to the Sun' is an installation by architect Nikola Bašić, located on Zadar's waterfront, right next to the Sea Organ.

From it, you can see the Zadar channel, the islands, and the sunset. The ‘Monument to the Sun' is a favorite place for tourists and consists of three hundred multilayer glass panels placed at the same level with the stone pavement in the form of a circle that is 22 meters in diameter. The monument is illuminated at night, producing a light show. 

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