Last October’s crown jewelry heist at the famed Louvre Museum in Paris rocked the art world. But it turns out, downtown Eugene has seen its own share of art theft in recent months.
Throughout 2025, the New Zone Gallery and more than two dozen local artists launched the “Parking Meter Art Repair Project.” Roughly 250 tiny masterpieces were installed in old vandalized parking meters as a form of “guerilla art,” intended to beautify defunct eyesores.
But now, quite a few have either been vandalized or completely disappeared, including one for KLCC that featured a radio, microphone, and distinctive tower complete with transmission circles.
Judd Turner, a Eugene sculptor who worked on the project, said it speaks to the impermanence of things, a Buddhist principle he follows.
“Street art lives a rough life. I don't even know that I would say it got stolen because it was not officially approved to be put there,” Turner told KLCC. “It's just the next iteration of what happens to the piece of art as it goes through its life, so the ones that have been vandalized, that's unfortunate. But if somebody loved a piece of street art enough to take a screwdriver and remove it to take it home, I'm sort of okay with that.”
Turner, along with Robert Bolman, took on the task of installing many of the miniature pieces of art. All were unique and featured ornate sculptures, fanciful portraits, glyphs, and scenic paintings. Each piece was limited to roughly a 5-inch diameter circle as that was the size of the hole left when the old parking meters had their coin vaults removed.
“We decided early on not to seek official permission, but to do it in a way that wasn't vandalizing or creating any damage,” said Turner. All pieces were put in with screws, which could be removed if someone made the effort. Some of the more sentimental pieces had special tamper-resistant screws that could only be taken out with a specialized tool.
“An example of that is the gallerist in town, Karin Clarke, who lost her daughter, Ava, to cancer last year,” said Turner. “And Karin is a fine art painter and part of her reentry back into her own art practice has been through making parking meter art that celebrates Ava, little portraits of Ava.”
Upon hearing the KLCC-themed meter art had disappeared, Rex Redmond–the artist who created it–recalled installing it last August with former KLCC news director Tripp Sommer.
“As I was putting all the hours into that one, I knew I may never see it again,” said Redmond. “It was ultimately a love note to KLCC. There is no other place downtown I would put that much time into parking meter art for.”
But as it turns out, the City of Eugene had removed Redmond’s piece after it was mysteriously damaged and rendered unsafe. Redmond has been in touch with the administrator in charge of meters to see if he could possibly re-install it some day.
KLCC has also reached out to the city to learn if Redmond’s art could be making a comeback, but so far there’s been no response.
“It won't deter me from making more parking meter art,” said Redmond. ”It's been too much fun.”
Appropriately enough, the parking meter-art project was running out of time, anyway. Turner said the city plans to upgrade its parking meters, so the remaining art will disappear eventually.
“But in the meantime,” said Turner, “it's been a lot of fun to put art in public places that people don't expect and to bring a little bit of color and joy to downtown.”
There is no known timetable for the meter upgrades, so fans of the downtown parking meter art are encouraged to appreciate the mini-masterpieces while they can.
Copyright 2026, KLCC.
