Parting Shot: Beach Baby

Miami has a reputation for attracting the young, trendy, beautiful and thin to its hip hot spots and crowded beaches. Yet Swiss artist Olaf Breuning’s buxom 150-ton sand beauty seemed perfectly at home when she made her appearance last December as part of the city’s Art Basel events. Martin and Cricket Taplin, owners of Miami’s art-loving Sagamore Hotel, commissioned the artist to construct the Paul Klee-esque reclining statue. “I’m very proud to be making an art piece you cannot buy,” Breuning told The New York Times Style Magazine.

Though wind and sea have long washed the woman away, she left a lasting impression, and modest she was not. When Miami officials suggested a bikini top to cover her bare chest, Breuning kindly refused. “I just thought it’s nicer without,” he told The Miami Herald.