PIAF's visual arts manager Margaret Moore said that since the beginning of the festival on February 10, Choi Jeong Hwa's installation Air Air has been damaged on four separate occasions.

"There have been a few repeated damages to the work and I don't know if it's a combination of people just wanting to have fun with it but sometimes it appears to be a little bit more aggressive than that," she said.

Ms Moore said the large-scale plastic and synthetic structures, which are located in the city's Stirling Gardens, have been repaired "on two or three occasions now and we'll do that again this week".

"We are committed to putting work in public places and we're committed to repairing it, so to the few that do damage it, there are still many people who are enjoying it," she added.

She said that further costs and the increased amount of manpower being dedicated to Mr Hwa's work has been frustrating and disappointing.

"It does mean we have to get a team of people together who work with the artist regularly to return, who also have other responsibilities and roles, so it's a cost in terms of people's time as well as financial.

"Above all we're just concerned that the artist's work is represented the way it should be and that we're offering everyone an equivalent experience of it rather than seeing a damaged (piece of) work."

She added that while extra surveillance and security measures have been put in place to protect the temporary sculptures commissioned from the artist who the LA Times called, "the internationally recognised leader of Korea's pop art movement", it didn't deter vandals over the weekend.

"It's just disappointing to us because so many people are enjoying it and so many people are taking the opportunity to get down there to photograph it and experience it but we are finding ourselves repeatedly having to go down and make it presentable again just as the artist intended."

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