Police report today that three pieces of sculpture, including the one shown above, have been stolen from the Vogel-Schwartz Sculpture Garden in Riverfront Park, a combined theft of some $20,000 worth of art. Police fear the bronzes may have been stolen for scrap.
A parks worker discovered the thefts this Friday morning, a police report said.
UPDATE: A co-worker said she noticed two of the sculptures missing more than a week ago, but it didn’t occur to her then they’d been stolen.
The report says the two-part “Conversation With Myself,” shown at top, was apparently worked back and forth until the metal broke near the ankle. Thieves also took “Birds of Happiness,” by Dee Clements, a three-foot-high piece which depicted two cranes in flight. A grinder was used, they believe, because the base was intact but the birds were gone. Also missing is “Uptown Saturday Night,” a one-foot-tall piece of a dancer. Its mounting bolts also were ground off from the bottom of the sculpture.
Though worth $20,000 as sculptures, the works of art are worth far less as scrap, perhaps about $2.35 a pound, one scrap dealer said. They were small pieces and the combined weight wouldn’t have been significant.
UPDATE II: Leslie Peacock has more at Rock Candy including a call by City Director Dean Kumpuris, godfather of the sculpture garden, for more security.