Sun Tunnels pulled from online auction site

The famous "Sun Tunnels" are no longer offered for sale on eBay.

The Sun Tunnels are four 9-foot-diameter concrete tubes that are a landmark of both the western Utah desert landscape and the art world. Aligning with the rising and setting sun during winter and summer solstices, the Sun Tunnels are popular with art lovers and amateur astronomers.

They are arranged in an X shape that is 86 feet on a diagonal. Holes cut in the concrete represent the stars of several constellations.

Wednesday morning, the Deseret Morning News reported that someone was offering the Sun Tunnel property, including the land where the tunnels are located, on eBay. The auction was to run until Sunday and lowest acceptable bid was $16,500.

Alternatively, anyone could buy it immediately for $35,000, according to the listing. By Tuesday afternoon, the fifth day of the 10-day auction, no bids had been registered.

Nancy Holt, the New Mexico artist who built the Sun Tunnels in the middle 1970s, told a member of the Box Elder County recorder's office she has no intention of selling them. She bought 40 acres for the project back in 1973.

The recorder's office said Holt's taxes are paid up and she is the owner of the property.

The woman who offered the item on eBay replied to a Deseret Morning News e-mail on Tuesday, identifying herself as Angela Madsen and saying the Sun Tunnels are near the edge of her property.

Madsen wrote, "I was just contacted by the property owner next to mine, who thinks they are on her side of the line. So I might have to have it surveyed."