Rare Cyrus Dallin Sculpture Recovered Decades After Heist
- July 17, 2012 15:29
Police have recovered a bronze by famed sculptor Cyrus Dallin (1861-1944) more than three decades after it was stolen from a Boston-area school.
A Boston art dealer contacted the Cyrus Dallin Art Museum about the piece while doing an appraisal for a Somerville, Mass., family. Police found the statue in their possession.
A museum board member recognized "Praying Knight" which disappeared during a 1980 renovation project for the merger of Rindge Technical School and Cambridge High and Latin School, where the artwork had been kept for 50 years.
The statue will be rededicated at the school.
Dallin had created the work as a memorial for Cambridge students who died in World War I.
Among his notable public works are the "Paul Revere” statue in front of Old North Church in Boston’s North End and the “Appeal to the Great Spirit” statue at the entrance of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The family who had the work appraised will not be charged with any crime.
A deceased family member had brought the purloined piece home decades ago and how he acquired it is unknown.
