After more than two years, the long hiatus for Robert Arneson's quirky sculpture Yin Yang doesn't yet have an end date, according to the SF Arts Commission. The sculpture, consisting of two oversized, comical-looking, egg-shaped heads, usually makes its home in Sue Bierman Park, but since 2013, it's been out of commission as the Commission restored it and examined possible modifications to its site. 

The sculpture, created by Arneson in 1992, spent more than a decade in Sue Bierman Park, where it was mauled by climbing children and disrespectful birds. As a result, it was removed in August 2013 for a much-needed restoration. Kate Patterson-Murphy, communications director for the San Francisco Arts Commission, told the Barbary Coast News in 2014 that the heads were receiving a new, more durable paint treatment, and should be back by spring 2015. (Though the plaque in the park says the sculpture's name is Yin and Yang, Patterson-Murphy confirmed that the official name doesn't include the "and.")

In July, we checked in again about the artwork's whereabouts. "Restoration work is complete," Patterson-Murphy told us at the time. "We hope to have [the heads] installed before the end of the year." 

Removal of Yin Yang. (Photo: San Francisco Arts Commission)

Since Arneson's heads still have yet to return, we wondered if the commission might be holding off until after the weeklong Super Bowl City, which is expected to bring a million people through the park (along with adjacent Justin Herman Plaza and the foot of Market Street) for concerts, fan activities and other festivities.

"The short answer is that we do not have an install date yet," Patterson-Murphy told us via email. "We are currently researching modifications to the sculpture’s display, in order to better protect the heads now that they have been repaired. Depending on what we discover during our research we may need to make significant modifications to the site, which will take some time. A reasonable timeline will likely be late spring/early summer."