By Bill Hoffmann. New
York Post, December 26, 2000
All we are saying is . . . give John Lennon his glasses back!
That's the cry of Beatle fans in Cuba after a heartless thief swiped the
spectacles from the life-size bronze statue of Lennon unveiled in Havana earlier
this month.
The rounded metal specs were grabbed late last week after a guard assigned
to protect the monument in El Vedado Park left during a rain shower.
"Some fanatic or thief took the glasses, for some unknown reason,"
the Communist Youth newspaper, Juventud Rebelde, said.
The monument - of a long-haired Lennon seated on a park bench - was unveiled
Dec. 8, the 20th anniversary of his death.
Cuban dictator Fidel Castro hailed the rocker as a man of progressive "anti-imperialist"
ideas - a far cry from his sentiments in the '60s, when he blasted the Beatles'
music as decadent.
The cigar-chomping leader said his flip-flop came after declassified U.S.
documents showed that Lennon suffered for his opposition to the Vietnam War.
"John Lennon was a revolutionary whose thinking and ideas made him
great," he proclaimed.
José Villa Soberon, the Cuban sculptor who made the statue, said he
will replace the stolen glasses with another pair.
But this time, he'll weld them more firmly to Lennon's head, Soberon said.
Cuban authorities also plan to step up security around the statue.
Lennon was shot dead by obsessed fan Mark David Chapman outside the Dakota
apartment building on Central Park West.
Lennon's songs with the Beatles are more popular than in years. A new
collection of the Fab Four's greatest hits, called "1," is currently
the top-selling album in the world.
Copyright 2000 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
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