Grand Piano Found On Sandbar In Miami Bay

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13 years 9 months ago #1 by riada
Grand piano found on sandbar in Miami bay
MIAMI, Wed Jan 26, 08:28 AM

A grand piano recently showed up on a sandbar in Miami's Biscayne Bay, about 200 yards from condominiums on the shore.
The piano, which weighs at least 650 pounds, was placed at the highest spot along the sandbar so it doesn't get underwater during high tide.

While officials aren't sure how it got there, they know it won't be going anywhere unless it becomes a hazard to wildlife or boaters.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Jorge Pino says the agency is not responsible for moving such items. And, he adds, unless it becomes a navigational hazard, the U.S. Coast Guard won't get involved.

For now, the piano has become a fancy roost for seagulls.

Teen says he put grand piano in Miami bay
MIAMI, Thu Jan 27, 09:29 AM

A 16-year-old looking to boost his art school application took a bow Thursday for being the one behind the grand piano that mysteriously showed up on a sandbar in Miami's Biscayne Bay.
Nicholas Harrington said he wanted to leave his artistic mark on Miami's seascape as the artist Christo did in the early 1980s when he draped 11 small islands in Biscayne Bay with hot pink fabric. And if it helped the high school junior get into Manhattan's Cooper Union college, that would be OK too.

"I wanted to create a whimsical, surreal experience. It's out of the every day for the boater," Harrington told The Associated Press.

"I don't like it be considered as a prank," he said. "It's more of a movement."

On Jan. 2, Harrington, his older brother Andrew and two neighbors lifted the instrument, which had been trashed during a holiday party, onto the family's 22-foot boat and took it out on Biscayne Bay. There, they left it on the highest spot along a sandbar.

Harrington is the son of "Burn Notice" production designer J. Mark Harrington. The piano is an old movie prop that sat for four years in Harrington's grandmother's garage. The teen had talked about hoisting the instrument from a tree or using it in a music video, among other projects, his mother said, but nothing happened until the winter break from school.

The teen said he grew up in a family that appreciated art and architecture, and he had his parents' support for his scheme.

"The weirdness of it all just comes easily," he said.

The piano sat undisturbed in the bay until last week, when Suzanne Beard, a local resident, took her boat over to the sandbar to take a look. Her picture of pelicans roosting on the instrument ended up on the National Geographic website. From there, the story went viral, much to Harrington's surprise.

"We pretty much forgot about it until it became super popular," the teen said.

He said he had planned to remain anonymous - except for including photos of the installation in his college application - until others began claiming responsibility.

"I think it was much more powerful as a mystery," said the teen's mother, Annabel Harrington. "It put Miami on the map in a good way."

It's not clear what will happen to the piano. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission isn't responsible for moving such items and the U.S. Coast Guard won't get involved unless it becomes a hazard to navigation.

Harrington and his mother said they are prepared to retrieve the piano

Musician rescues Miami mystery piano from sandbar
MIAMI, Fri Jan 28, 08:11 AM
A baby grand piano is gone again from a Miami sandbar after a musician rescued the battered instrument for his son.

A towing crew took the piano Thursday. Its appearance on the sandbar in early January was a mystery until 16-year-old Nicholas Harrington stepped forward this week to say he put it there as an art project.

State wildlife officials had served the Harringtons with orders to remove it within 24 hours. But musician Carl Bentulan got there first.

Bentulan told The Miami Herald he plans to eventually put the piano in his living room. He said his 10-year-old son insisted the piano needed a home.

It was unclear if the Harringtons will seek custody. But towing company owner Lynn Mitchell says maritime law gives possession to whoever pays to salvage something abandoned at sea.

Nor but in sleep findeth a cure for care.
Incertainty that once gave scope to dream
Of laughing enterprise and glory untold,
Is now a blackness that no stars redeem.

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