The community has rallied round after vandals trashed a beautiful exhibition of African sculptures in Cannizaro Park.

Twenty pieces from the Zimbabwean exhibition were completely ruined when thugs ran riot through the park on Friday night, pushing over almost half of the 100 sculptures.

But as word spread through Wimbledon Village the next morning, well-wishers arrived and helped the organisers salvage what they could.

Curator Vivienne Prince said she was determined not to let mindless idiots destroy the exhibition, which has been touring the UK without any problems for five years.

She said: "Lots of people have heard about it and have said how upset and disappointed they are.

"It is really sweet. Everybody has been very supportive.

"The sculptures have come from so far away and we have such hard problems in Zimbabwe, even to do the sculptures in the first place is a big struggle.

"Some little bastards come and destroy it all in probably what only took half an hour.

"I spent most of the morning in floods of tears.

"I did open the gates and the public strolled in and I told them we had been vandalised.

"People helped us put the sculptures back up because we didn't have the manpower to do it unexpectedly.

"It was this really nice gesture from the public to get it back to its former glory."

As well as pushing over the artworks, the vandals also slashed and burned Miss Prince's sales marquee, causing a total of £11,000 in damage.

Tony Matthews, chairman of the Friends of Cannizaro Park, said: "We are shocked and saddened at this pathetic and mindless attack on such a beautiful exhibition.

"It re-emphasises the need for an efficient and properly funded security level for Cannizaro Park."

But Merton Council leader Andrew Judge said: "This is not an issue about whether the council provides security or not.

"The reality is that there are a number of individuals who only care about themselves and their response to others ranges from indifference to destructiveness.

"We will be carrying out a review of security arrangements but no security arrangements can cover everything of value all of the time "We will work closely with the police to do everything possible to prevent these selfish individuals from destroying the pleasures of others and to make them responsible for their own actions."

Wimbledon police are investigating. Anyone with information should call PC Pepper on 020 8649 3191.

1:15pm Thursday 23rd June 2005

By Jo Bowring

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