The popular, yet controversial, mosaic called the "Surfing Madonna" has a home.
The Encinitas city council voted unanimously to accept a long term loan of the mosaic and to place it near Moonlight Beach according to our media partner the North County Times.
The 10-foot-by-10-foot mosaic appeared under a railroad bridge on Encinitas Blvd. in April 2011. The piece created a buzz among onlookers who questioned the origin and the artist's intention.
Saying it was an unauthorized piece of public art, city officials threatened to strip it from the underpass an act that would destroying it.
At that point, the secretive artist Mark Patterson stepped forward to claim the surfing Madonna as his own. He paid for the removal in June and began looking for a place to reinstall her.
After deliberations, he settled on loaning it to the city of Encinitas, as long as the city would agree to put it on the corner of Encinitas Boulevard and Coast Highway 101, just down the street from the original location.
City officials said that property is owned by the state parks system so they encouraged residents to lobby officials to allow the placement according to the paper.
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