{"id":131975,"date":"2025-09-10T04:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T04:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/131975\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T04:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T04:58:09","slug":"iconic-bikini-sculpture-back-on-gold-coast-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/131975\/","title":{"rendered":"Iconic bikini sculpture back on Gold Coast beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\ufeff giant bronze sculpture stolen from a Gold Beach, sparking a nationwide search, is being replaced by a lookalike.<\/p>\n

The original Sun Spirit, a much-loved 100kg bronze sculpture of a bikini-clad beachgoer created by local artist Frank Miles, was stolen from its wooden platform in March.<\/p>\n

While the original statue hasn’t been found, the replica – spotted by a fan in a Sydney property listing on Domain<\/a>, has been donated to the Gold Coast community for the SWELL Sculpture Festival, which begins on Friday.\"\"\/A replica of the stolen Sun Spirit statue is being installed on a Gold Coast beach. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

The replica, one of only three casts of the famous statue, has been donated by its owners, Annette and Brett Straatemeier, and will be mounted in place of the original.<\/p>\n

They made the donation in return for a $50,000 fundraiser for the Starlight Children’s Foundation.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Gold Coast City Councillor Gail O’Neill says the community was shocked by the theft of the original artwork but delighted to have the replica.<\/p>\n

“Sun Spirit was a much-loved fixture on the Currumbin foreshore and we were all devastated when she was stolen,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We worked closely with the previous owner to ensure this edition was brought back to the Gold Coast.”<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Artist Frank Miles. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

The council paid for the replica to be transported from NSW to the Gold Coast.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Miles says it was “heartbreaking” to have three of his works stolen and a fourth damaged.<\/p>\n

“I created only three casts of this statue. Each one is unique, and to have one returned in such an extraordinary way feels like a small miracle,” he said.<\/p>\n

Miles first displayed Sun Spirit as part of the inaugural Swell Sculpture Festival in 2006 before the council acquired the work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\ufeff giant bronze sculpture stolen from a Gold Beach, sparking a nationwide search, is being replaced by a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-131975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}