So there it stood for the last decade: allegedly damaged, possibly devalued, definitely disowned, but still a boldly colorful presence on that busy corner and a landmark for the thousands of pedestrians who passed it daily. I wondered, the last time I saw it, why it was cordoned off with the familiar yellow construction-or-crime-scene tape; it didn’t occur to me that it might be coming down. Like the whitewashing of Bill Walker’s All of Mankind mural a few years ago, its disappearance is a reminder that the public doesn’t own or control the fate of some of the city’s most public art.