Art thieves strike

A High Park sculptor says he’s heartbroken after a beloved art piece went missing from his home in early January.  

Police at 11 Division are investigating the theft of “Baba”, a 27-kilogram cement life-size sculpture created by Roger Golden in 2007.

Wife Cora said the sculpture disappeared from their two-car garage sometime around Jan. 6. The couple is desperate to get it back, as the piece is a homage to Roger’s grandmother. It depicts a sitting woman eating a bowl of soup.

The pair, who moved to the area from the Beach in August, keeps several of Roger’s sculptures — big and small — in their residence
when they’re not being displayed in gallery exhibits.  He’s created about a dozen other life-size sculptures.

Whoever grabbed the sculpture may have mistakenly thought it was made of bronze, and is trying to melt it down to sell as scrap metal, Cora speculated.

“They’re in for a surprise because it’s not (bronze),” she said. “Its only real value is as a piece of art.”

The sculpture was created using Winterstone Sculpting medium, a Canadian-developed cement-like material. The work is finished with bronze patina.

Roger said whoever has the piece in their possession will have a difficult time trying to sell it because it is known in the sculpting community.

“I can’t imagine anybody actually taking it and running the risk because it is so unique,” he said.

Roger has been sculpting for over 10 years, and his pieces have made the gallery circuit, including “Baba”.

It was scheduled to be a highlighted piece at a September exhibit at the Taras Shevchenko Museum in the Junction.

“We’re hoping that somebody has just grabbed it and doesn’t know what to do with it now and if we appeal to them they’ll just sort of bring it back and it’ll land at the police station,” Cora said.

“We don’t want to press charges, we just want her back.”