One artwork has been destroyed and two others damaged after a high tide and massive swell battered Sydney's iconic Sculpture by the Sea trail.
Some sculptures were dragged along the sand and into the water when a high tide swept Tamarama Beach on Monday afternoon.
One sculpture, Fair Dinkum Offshore Processing by artist Bronek Kozka , was destroyed while two others on the walkway between Bondi and Tamarama were washed into the water.
Organisers shifted some of the artworks - including the destroyed piece - further up the beach on Monday morning ahead of the high tide, but didn't expect the ferocity of the conditions which later unfolded.
"We just didn't expect that the tide and the surf was going to be as big as it was," Sculpture by the Sea founding director David Handley said.
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"We've had water coming not only the whole way into the back of the beach but also onto the path behind it."
Mr Handley said organisers would wait for the high tide to recede before taking full stock of the damage to artworks.
"There's a lot of pounding they're going to take in the morning as the tide comes back in," he said.
A crane will be brought in to retrieve one sculpture still in the water, and an excavator used to lift a granite piece felled by the wild weather.
