MOVING MOUNTAINS: Popular Desert Art Installation Leaving Las Vegas

It looks like Seven Magic Mountains, the colorful sculptures popping out of the desert 20 miles south of the Strip on Interstate 15, is leaving Las Vegas. On Tuesday, the Washoe County Board of Commissioners voted 4 to 1 to help the Nevada Museum of Art fund its relocation north, probably to Reno, Washoe’s biggest (little) city.

The art installation consisting of seven locally sourced, 30 to 35-foot tall boulders painted in Day-Glo colors was completed by Swiss-born artist Ugo Rondinone in May 2016. Originally, it was scheduled to be on view only through 2018. That run was extended for nine more years because of how popular it became as a driving landmark.

Seven Magic Mountains attracts around 325K visitors per year, according to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), largely because it encourages them to interact and pose with the sculptures for social media photos.

Unlucky Seven

Extending its run beyond the end of 2026 is impossible, however, because that’s when the Nevada Museum of Art’s lease with the BLM expires. The Southern Nevada Supplemental Airport is expected to open on the same land in 2037.

The Washoe County board’s agenda estimated that the proposed move would cost $500K.

According to the installation’s website, Rondinone sees Seven Magic Mountains as a “creative critique of the simulacra of destinations like Las Vegas.”

Its current location, he says, is “physically and symbolically mid-way between the natural and the artificial: the natural is expressed by the mountain ranges, desert, and Jean Dry Lake backdrop, and the artificial is expressed by the highway and the constant flow of traffic between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.”