Tom Finlay, 48, was standing 50m from his voluptuous hand-carved Venus de Milo when a flash of white light and an “almighty kaboom” sent stone flying through the air, The NT News reports.
Mr Finlay, who carved the statue as a tribute to NT women said he was amazed her 30kg breasts had survived the storm.
“There was a clap of thunder and the sculpture blew up like a rocket-launcher had hit it,” he said.
“Everything disintegrated but the breasts – all that’s left is what’s under her hips,” he added.
The 1.5m high sculpture, made of local porcelain, was perched on a 6m steel reinforced column.
Shattered stone was strewn about the small courtyard where the top half of the headless Venus was destroyed, but her breasts withstood the 8m drop on to the stone mural below. Only one nipple was damaged.
Mr Finlay said he had not yet decided the fate of the surviving breasts.
“I might mount (the breasts) and hang them in my office.”
