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LAS VEGAS - Four of five original statues that once stood in front of the Circus Circus hotel-casino have been hauled away and buried in a landfill by the hotel's new management.
The statues, Las Vegas Strip icons that were photographed by thousands of visitors each year, represented the most publicly visible surviving work by the artist Montyne.
The best-known of the statues, of an acrobat balancing on a single finger, was a self-portrait.
Montyne, who lived much of his life in Las Vegas and died here in 1989, used only the single name in both his private and professional life. He also traveled the world as a stage and circus performer, specializing in feats of balance and strength.
The late Jay Sarno, who founded Caesars Palace and Circus Circus, and is considered to have originated in the two hotels the heavily themed resort concept that dominated the gambling industry for decades, commissioned Montyne in 1967 to sculpt the statues. They were erected the next year, when Circus Circus opened, and remained there until they were removed about three months ago.
Montyne's surviving son, Lamont Sudbury, said the destruction violated one of the terms of Sarno's agreement with his father, that Montyne and his family would have first right of refusal if the statues were ever to be disposed of or sold.
''I would have loved to take 'The Balancer' and put it in the cemetery where my dad is,'' Sudbury said. ''But they didn't even call us. The only way I learned about it was when a friend of mine went over there to show the statues to one of his business associates, and they were gone.''
The other statues that were removed included one of a young female acrobat gracefully balancing on a board atop a cylinder. The person who posed for that statue was Montyne's wife, theatrical assistant and favorite model, China, who has remarried since his death and still lives in Las Vegas. Also removed were statues of Gargantua, the ''World's Largest Gorilla'' once exhibited by the Barnum & Bailey Circus, and of a male lion. Only one of the five is left: a clown.
Sudbury said he was told by casino executives that the four statues were removed and hauled to a landfill north of Las Vegas and buried.
Montyne painted the classical ceiling murals in the original MGM Grand casino, which were destroyed in a 1980 fire that killed 87 people. The resort is now Bally's. He also created smaller paintings and sculptures for the homes of Las Vegas' elite.
Circus Circus grew in the 1970s and '80s from a single property to a publicly traded casino corporation, changed its name to Mandalay Resorts, and was bought by MGM Mirage in March 2005.
''We removed four of the five statues out front because they were very old and had been painted over many times,'' said Yvette Monet, an MGM Mirage spokeswoman. ''They had deteriorated to the point that the statues no longer represented what we thought was the great Montyne's original vision when he created them in the 1960s.''
MGM Mirage was not aware that the statues had been promised to Montyne's family, Monet said, adding that the company would offer the remaining clown statue to Lamont Sudbury.
Two of Sarno's daughters reacted differently to news of the statues' removal.
''They were cute,'' said Heidi Sarno Straus. ''I used to sit in the gorilla's big hand when I was about 10.''
Her sister, September Sarno, said, ''My immediate thought is that over time every building that winds up remaining gets a face-lift. The hotel's present management is running a business, not a nostalgia factory, and the bottom line isn't just the main thing, it's the only thing.''