Vancouver's Trans Am Totem saved by $250K donation from Chip and Shannon Wilson

The Trans Am Totem has been saved by a $250,000 donation from Chip and Shannon Wilson, though the final destination for the art piece still needs to be decided.

Artist Marcus Bowcott and his wife, Helene Aspinall, created the sculpture, comprised of five refinished scrap cars stacked on top of an old-growth cedar tree, specifically for its current location near the Georgia Viaduct in 2015 — but because it was made as part of a Vancouver Biennale public art exhibition, it was only scheduled for a two-year run.

The city extended that timeline an extra two years, but that period ended in September.

The Biennale has been working for months to confirm the Wilsons' donation and save the art piece. The paperwork was finalized on Monday.

Barrie Mowatt, founder and president of the Biennale, said the exhibition bought the totem with the Wilsons' donation and then donated it to the city under a 10-year tenure.

"Our philosophy really is about transforming public space through creating museum-calibre installations that really speak to the times," Mowatt said. "With each Biennale, we try to retain at least one major work in each of the communities in which we are."

Chip Wilson is the multi-billionaire founder of Lululemon Athletica and a property holder in Vancouver, who has donated before to support the Biennale's public art.

In 2012, he donated $1.5 million to A-maze-ing Laughter, an installation comprised of 14 statues of laughing men on the corner of Denman and Davie Streets in the city's west end. The bronze sculpture was in jeopardy because it was only on loan from the artist, Yue Minjun, as part of the biannual art exhibition during the 2010 Olympics.

Wilson and his wife funded the Vancouver Park Board's purchase of the statues after the sculptor dropped his $5 million asking price.

Those statues have remained in their original place, but the Trans Am Totem will eventually need to move because of the city's 20-year plan to revitalize the northeast False Creek area — which includes tearing down the Georgia Viaduct and developing the surrounding area.

Mowatt said there's no "immediate movement" on talks to find a new home for the totem just yet.

"Not until the city comes back and tells us they have a date for demolition [on the revitalization project], because, as you and I know, that could happen in six months or six years," he said.