Below is a article about it's disappearance from the Norwich Bulletin:
Historic cemetery statue stolen
Updated: Friday, 12 Mar 2010, 4:37 PM EST
Published : Wednesday, 24 Feb 2010, 6:48 PM EST
Published : Wednesday, 24 Feb 2010, 6:48 PM EST
Norwich, Conn. (WTNH) - Police are following leads into the case of a stolen statue in Norwich.
It's value is both sentimental and historic. A classic example of Victorian funerary art.
"[It] depicts a woman apparently in mourning with her robes around her," said Norwich City Historian David Plummer.
Plummer says the bronze statue, marking the 1881 gravesite of Sarah Osgood, was a highlighted piece in an effort to get the Yantic Cemetery on the historic registry.
Osgood's husband, Charles, made his money in pharmaceuticals. He was a Norwich mayor and one of the founders of Norwich Free Academy. The statue, which was recently stolen, may now be valued at more than $100,000.
"If it in fact it turned out to be, by a well-known nationally famous sculpture, that wouldn't be surprising," said Plummer.
Police say the statue may have been stolen for its artistic value or its scrap metal value. They have seen a lot of other thefts like that around the city.
"Our fear is that someone would have taken it to a scrap yard for the value of the metal and it would be lost for good," Plummer said. "I would feel horrible; really horrible."
One thing is for certain: the city just wants the statue back.
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Last piece of stolen statue recovered
Two arrested
Updated: Wednesday, 24 Mar 2010, 4:12 PM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 24 Mar 2010, 4:12 PM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 24 Mar 2010, 4:12 PM EDT
Norwich, Conn. (WTNH) - The final piece of a stolen historic statue valued at over $35,000 has been recovered.
The Osgood statue was reported stolen February 19th from the Yantic Cemetery in Norwich. The statue was about 120 years old and weighed about 450 pounds.
Police in Norwich say the head was found Tuesday in a Willimantic park.
Charged in the theft are 43-year old Sean McNee of Willimantic and 46-year old Richard Chamberlain of Lebanon.
Police say they expect to make more arrests in the case.
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Stolen Head recovered
Norwich, Conn. —
Willimantic police have recovered the missing head of an historic bronze statue stolen from a Norwich cemetery and cut up for scrap metal, Norwich police announced today.
Willimantic Police Lt. Mary Beth Curtis said police received a call Tuesday from a man walking on a vacant property in Willimantic who discovered the statue’s head perched atop a stone wall. The head is en route to Norwich, Curtis said Wednesday.
Pieces of the 450-pound statue, minus the head, were recovered from a Willimantic scrap yard last month where it had been sold for about $200. The 120-year-old statue of a woman’s figure marked the grave of Sarah Osgood at the Yantic Cemetery on Lafayette Street in Norwich. It was first reported missing on Feb. 19.
Norwich police, who have worked cooperatively with Willimantic police, charged two men in connection with the theft. One of the men, Sean McNee, 43, of Willimantic, formerly worked installing gravestones for a company in Norwich, police said. Richard Chamberlain, 46, of Lebanon, also was charged.
Norwich police are holding the statue’s pieces as evidence in the ongoing court case.
Willimantic Police Lt. Mary Beth Curtis said police received a call Tuesday from a man walking on a vacant property in Willimantic who discovered the statue’s head perched atop a stone wall. The head is en route to Norwich, Curtis said Wednesday.
Pieces of the 450-pound statue, minus the head, were recovered from a Willimantic scrap yard last month where it had been sold for about $200. The 120-year-old statue of a woman’s figure marked the grave of Sarah Osgood at the Yantic Cemetery on Lafayette Street in Norwich. It was first reported missing on Feb. 19.
Norwich police, who have worked cooperatively with Willimantic police, charged two men in connection with the theft. One of the men, Sean McNee, 43, of Willimantic, formerly worked installing gravestones for a company in Norwich, police said. Richard Chamberlain, 46, of Lebanon, also was charged.
Norwich police are holding the statue’s pieces as evidence in the ongoing court case.
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