What happens to all those broken pieces of statue, the noses, the arms, the hands, etc.? I was thinking about Wim Winders' film "Wings of Desire" the other day when I realised that something a bit shady must have been going on, what with all those angels congregating like pigeons around the monuments and statues, eavesdropping on the thoughts of the passersby, wanting desperately to communicate with them, if only they could find a way... Suddenly the angels' attraction to statues made sense to me! True, I don't recall actually witnessing those winged vandals at work, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together.

   Still, there is something that puzzles me. I can understand the angels "appropriating" a statue's hands -- hands can be so expressive. Arms, of course, are simply extensions of the hand, for when an angel wants to communicate something loudly. But what's an angel going to do with something like the Sphinx's nose, aside from dropping it on some poor mortal's foot to get his attention?

- Marc Silva, Fall 1995