Leader: Weather takes art to new depths

It's art, but not as we know it. Anthony Gormley's statues, dressed up in attire ranging from a bikini to Y-fronts and woolly hat, have already triggered 999 calls from passers-by.

Now his cast-iron figures created for Edinburgh's Water of Leith at a cost of 400,000 have vanished after falling victim to the capital's unseasonal weather.

Two of his six statues along the river have been toppled by severe torrents just four weeks after being installed by the National Galleries of Scotland, which spent three years planning where to locate them. The existential question is: were they not supposed to deconstruct in such circumstances? The four statues are fitted with a special pin mechanism that topples them over to avoid them being damaged in bad weather - or become a flood hazard themselves. Experts said the figures may have to spend weeks hidden from public view over the winter in the event of heavy rain.

So why were they installed in the river in the first place? As with Gormley's acclaimed Angel of the North, the statues have critical mass. Each life-size figure weighs about half a tonne and they were, says the artist, "built to last about 1,000 years". That's a bold claim to make about any installation exposed to the Scottish weather. Perhaps their underwater disappearance can be viewed as integral to the artistic experience - appearance, disappearance, mystery.