THEY'VE had their noses pulled off, been daubed with graffiti, and one was even lassoed and dragged away by the neck.
Today the Cavorting Sailors statues which have stood on the Leith Library Plaza for the past six years are finally to be removed.
The sailors were created by local artist Shaeron Averbuch in 2002 in tribute to Leith's nautical heritage.
Within
months of being installed, however, they were subjected to the first of many attacks by vandals, and now their cavorting days are over.
Averbuch said she plans to reuse the remains of the statues, whatever condition they are in after their removal: "They will come back to my studio at the Lighthouse at Granton and they'll either be kept outside in the courtyard and restored, or if they're really just rubble they can be put into an artwork for a future exhibition.
"I was hugely disappointed in the early days of it being vandalised because so much work and goodwill had gone into it. You have put so much work into something that it feels like you're being chipped away at yourself. But over the years I've got over the sight of it being in disrepair."
Graham Chapman, chairman of Leith Harbour and Newhaven Community Council, welcomed the sailors' removal: "I think it's a good thing because they were subject to terrible vandalism. Rather than enhancing that corner it was making it worse."
Averbuch had hoped the vandalised statues would become part of an evolving public art display, with, for example, the statues bandaged by school pupils and the third sailor returned to the site following his lassoing, tucked up in a hospital bed. However, she said she was unable to secure funding for further projects.
"I fully understand that they couldn't just remain there decaying for ever so I'm happy for them to be taken away. I'm disappointed they've got vandalised, but being somebody that works in public art I know that that's the nature of that art form."
She said the damage done to the sailors should not discourage others from experimenting with art projects in the city, such as the proposal for sculptor Anthony Gormley to place a series of human forms along the Water of Leith.
"From the public's point of view there seems to be this determination to destroy what's out there, so you need to work on an ongoing culture of saying that putting things in the public realm is positive."
She was not sure exactly how the statues would be removed, she added: "We'll just have to see – the city council is helping as well – I don't know if they'll have their sledgehammers – or a small hand grenade, perhaps."
