Back in February CAN Blog reported on the disappearance of Loren Naji’s public art installation, “They Have Landed,” an eight-foot orb constructed primarily of plywood.

“For more than 10 years, Loren Naji’s iconic sculpture ‘They Have Landed’ sat politely on a slip of greenspace in front of the West 25^th RTA station, but now it’s gone,” noted our previous coverage. The removal was associated with the new residential project, Intro in Ohio City.

“They just threw it away,” added Naji at the time. “Can you imagine?”

But now along with the official arrival of summer, the situation has gotten a bit sunnier. The artist has released a statement regarding the unfortunate fate of “They Have Landed” and the subsequent kerfuffle.

“After gathering additional information, Mr. Naji learned that the removal of his artwork, They Have Landed, was the result of a misunderstanding by Mr. Naji, Panzica, and Harbor Bay,” said the public statement. “Neither Mr. Naji, Panzica, nor Harbor Bay are to blame for this misunderstanding.”

The statement continued: “Through their shared commitment for public art, Mr. Naji is excited that Panzica and Harbor Bay have chosen to make a generous donation to support Mr. Naji’s further work to create a new piece of public art.”

During a June 20 phone interview, Naji said the agreement came to fruition after all parties convened. “We called a meeting,” he said. “We had all the entities there all at once,” he added, tagging RTA, the City of Cleveland, Panzica Construction, and Harbor Bay Developers. “We tried to leave things amicably,” he said, adding that everyone wanted to avoid a lawsuit.

Specific details about the forthcoming project have yet to be drawn up, although Naji believes it will probably be similar in size and will come together over the next year.

“Right now,” said Naji, “I don’t have that much information. It’s still being worked out.”

Although likely in Cleveland or Northeast Ohio, location is completely up in the air. There are no constraints in place to have the work associated with a Harbor Bay Development or Panzica Construction project. Naji, however, does have one solid prediction for how the situation’s final resolution.

“I’m going to have new, fresh art out there.”

Follow CAN Blog for further developments.