Friends of La Contessa

La Contessa was a highly-realistic, mobile, interactive replica of a Spanish galleon, originally built for the festival Burning Man. Many of the builders were members of the Extra Action Marching Band. From 2002 on the galleon was stored and then reassembled many times for Burning Man visits and other desert parties. In spite of what the builders thought was a friendly relationship with the person owning the land on which La Contessa was stored, it was deliberately and admittedly burned to the ground by this landowner, Mike Stewart, without warning on December 5, 2006.

See: http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=2710
for a comprehensive story.

The 100-plus artists who created La Contessa planned to have this piece for many more future activities, parties and festivals. It was still a functioning art car and was visited several times a year, with the last visit taking place just three months before the arson. The artists have been working on a claim against Mike Stewart since he admitted to burning it, and officially filed Monday March 9th, 2009 under the VARA Act, with Simon Cheffins and Greg Jones as the plaintiffs and a long list of "interested parties." The claim is for $900,000, a number that was provided by independent estimators and based purely on the time and materials that would be required for contractors to reconstruct a similar piece.

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La Contessa was a highly-realistic, mobile, interactive replica of a Spanish galleon, originally built for the festival Burning Man. Many of the builders were members of the Extra Action Marching Band. From 2002 on the galleon was stored and then reassembled many times for Burning Man visits and other desert parties. In spite of what the builders thought was a friendly relationship with the person owning the land on which La Contessa was stored, it was deliberately and admittedly burned to the... (read more)