A statue of a troll made out of recycled wood caught fire and burned down at Pease Park in Austin, Texas, on Thursday.
The Pease Park Conservancy said on social media that “the troll sculpture in Pease Park was lost to a fire, and we are heartbroken.”
The Austin Fire Department told the Austin American-Statesman that the fire was reported at about 5:30 a.m. Firefighters arrived in time to put out the fire with no injuries reported, but couldn’t save the wooden statue.
Fire officials are investigating the cause of the blaze, with an arson investigation team on the scene Thursday, according to the newspaper.
The fire department is also soliciting tips from the public, who are asked to call the Texas state arson hotline at 877-434-7345 if they have any information, according to a second social media post from the conservancy.
The statue, installed in 2024, was a work by Danish artist Thomas Dambo titled “Malin’s Fountain.”
Mr. Dambo specializes in producing trolls out of recycled material. That includes “Malin’s Fountain,” which depicted a seated female troll holding a bowl to represent the need to share water with the animals in the park, according to the Pease Park Conservancy website.
Allison Johnson, director of community engagement for the Pease Park Conservancy, told Austin’s KUT-FM that Mr. Dambo’s team is “just sad and they said to send their love to Austin and the community and to our team that worked so hard on it.”
Ms. Johnson told the radio station that the 18-foot-tall statue was insured, but did not say whether the conservancy plans to get a new troll in the same place.
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