Lithuanian artists offer Baltimore bust of Zappa

BALTIMORE (AP) — Frank Zappa, who sang about “Plastic People,” has again been cast in bronze.

In 1995, a quirky bunch of Lithuanian artists and intellectuals managed to erect a bust of the eccentric rocker in downtown Vilnius, the capital of the former Soviet republic.

They now want to place a replica in Mr. Zappa’s hometown.

Saulius Paukstys, longtime president of a Zappa fan club, pitched the Zappa bust yesterday to Baltimore’s public art commission, and the commissioners, clearly charmed by his dogged efforts, voted unanimously to accept the gift. They will figure out later where exactly to place it.

Arturas Baublys, a public relations consultant and Zappa admirer who made the trip with Mr. Paukstys said the statue is finished and ready to be shipped to the United States.

“Whenever Baltimore says OK, and gives us an address to ship it to, we pack it and we ship it on our costs,” he said. “And that’s a nation of 3½ million giving a present to the United States.”

Before the initial sculpture was erected, there was no known connection between Mr. Zappa and Lithuania. The mustachioed, anti-establishment rock star was born in Baltimore to an Italian immigrant father and in 1993, at 52, died of prostate cancer, never having visited the Baltic state.

But his music was popular among the Lithuanian avant-garde, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the country’s independence in 1990 from the Soviet Union. Mr. Paukstys, an art photographer, started the fan club and created an art exhibit with imagined correspondence between him and Mr. Zappa, whom he never met.

The club commissioned the bust from Konstantinas Bogdanas, a sculptor who cast many portraits of Lenin during the Soviet era. Club members then persuaded the mayor and City Council to place the bust in a public square, in front of the Belgian Embassy.

“It was just four years after independence,” Mr. Paukstys said through Mr. Baublys, who translated from Lithuanian. “The opportunity for this Zappa statue was also like a trial for the new system and the newly established democracy, if that [was] possible or not.”

Mr. Paukstys and Mr. Baublys hope for a similar response from Baltimore, where last year Mayor Sheila Dixon proclaimed Aug. 9 as “Frank Zappa Day.”

Vilnius Mayor Juozas Imbrasas sent a letter to Mrs. Dixon, a Democrat, asking her to accept the gift.

“I hope that replication of the original statue of Frank Zappa in Vilnius and bringing it to Baltimore will perpetuate the memory of one of the greatest artists of the [20th] century,” Mr. Imbrasas wrote.

Mr. Baublys estimated the cost of creating and shipping the bust at $50,000. The city would be responsible for installation and maintenance at a yet-to-be determined location.

He said the project has the blessing of Mr. Zappa’s widow, Gail, who as head of the Zappa Family Trust has been protective of her late husband’s image and music. Mrs. Zappa’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment, and agents for two of Mr. Zappa’s sons — Dweezil and Ahmet — did not return phone calls.

Dixon spokesman Sterling Clifford said the mayor had no objection to the bust, but would defer to the judgment of the Public Art Commission. He also said Mr. Zappa belongs in the pantheon of Baltimore’s famously offbeat favorite sons and daughters.

“Like John Waters and a lot of artists we’re proud of,” Mr. Clifford said, “it’s a big deal that Frank Zappa is from Baltimore.”