You thought we were safe, a new month, no analog logic bombs from the sunshine state… but this would underestimate the ability of Florida’s citizenry to jump in the deep end with both ends:

Miami developer arrested after using official funds to buy watermelon statue

Fri Mar 2, 5:16 PM ET

A prominent Miami developer was arrested Friday for allegedly skimming official funds to buy himself a 150,000-dollar sculpture of a giant watermelon slice.

Raul Masvidal turned himself in to authorities after he was charged with organized fraud and grand theft.

Masvidal had obtained millions of dollars from the Miami-Dade county to build new offices for the Housing Agency, but used part of the money to buy the sculpture by artist Julio Larraz, according to an affidavit filed in court.

The sculpture, called “Mars”, portrays a huge watermelon slice that has been bitten. To hide the purchase, he allegedly asked an art broker to write a fake invoice that listed only a sculpture of stacked cups that was to grace the new building, but charged for both artworks.

The Cuban-born Masvidal had gained prominence in Miami as a political advisor, philanthropist and businessman.

“What a great disappointment,” said State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. “He turned on his community. He turned on his friends.”

So, he tried to hide this fetish by disguising it as a sculpture of “stacked cups!” See when happens when you get addicted to figurative realism - before long you start craving huge fruits and eventually human body parts the size of office buildings. Where will it end. This must be stopped!

RINK

This entry was posted on Monday, March 5th, 2007 at 7:47 am and is filed under Fools, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.