Thong vs. Sandfly by artist Jane Gillings is seen after it was damaged by a king tide at Sculpture By The Sea at Tamarama Beach on October 25, 2016 in Sydney, Australia. (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

With over 100 artworks displayed along the coastline near Sydney, Sculpture by the Sea is the world's largest outdoor exhibition and one of Australia's biggest events. For the past 20 years, has showcased artists from all over the world and featured works of art in one of the most spectacular backdrops ever.

This year, however, the beautiful setting of sand and surf caused some problems for a number of the featured sculptures, which include a giant flipflop sandal and a dismembered rhinoceros with its feet in the air. , after being submerged several times, as waves of up to 13 feet high slammed Sydney's coastline on Monday and Tuesday, according to Australia's ABC News. Some sculptures were dragged along the sand toward the ocean by high tide and huge swells as tourists looked on.

Artist Bronek Kozka's work titled Fair Dinkum Offshore Processing was destroyed after it was swept off the rocks, and a sculpture by Elyssa Sykes was underwater off the Bondi coastline. Organizers retrieved the works at low tide.

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"We just didn’t expect that the tide and the surf was going to be as big as it was," David Handley, the founder of Sculpture by the Sea, told ABC TV. "We’ve had water coming not only the whole way into the back of the beach but also on to the path behind it."

According to Handley, the sculptures were pounded for four hours. "We prepared for this but didn’t expect it to be significant," he said. Organizers worked this week to restore the damaged artworks and repositioned some further back from the water.

Sculptor Michael Snape's work The Crossing was moved up Tamarama Beach twice after it was tossed about by the swell.

Fortunately it has not been damaged, just buried by a lot of sand.

"Putting work in a public space like this, you accept that it's unpredictable," sculptor Michael Snape, whose work titled The Crossing was tossed about by the swell, told ABC. "Whether nature does something or the public does something, you have to try and be realistic."

The exhibition is on display in Bondi through November 6, 2016. View the slideshow above to see works from the 2016 Sculpture by the Sea.

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