Merchants in Willoughby wanted to court new business by installing a sculpture garden downtown. What they’ve attracted so far are thieves: Twice last month, pieces were robbed from the Divine District display.
The merchants’ association launched its sculpture garden in September, with 23 pieces donated by 14 artists, says Jackie Bertolette, co-owner of My Song Boutique. The culprit appears to be a scrapper: Both of the stolen pieces were metal.
The first heist involved a copper and steel abstraction evocative of the phases of the moon, which had been installed in front of the Spray U Tan salon. The other was functional — a bike rack by artist Jerry Schmidt from Collinwood. He and his son made it out of steel head boards from old beds.
This article appears in Oct 27 – Nov 2, 2010.
