Stolen sculpture is back home

Baba is back, thanks to a Town Crier reader.   

The 27-kilogram cement sculpture stolen in January from High Park artist Roger Golden’s garage was returned Feb. 5 after a passerby found it on the street and notified police.

“We got a call from 11 Division on Friday night, about six o’clock, saying ‘we have found your sculpture’.”

The sculpture, which depicts a woman eating from a bowl of soup, disappeared from his two-car garage sometime around Jan. 6.

By early February, Golden had all but given up hope on retrieving the beloved piece, which was an homage to his grandmother.  

The story Golden got from police was that a passerby had found “Baba” in front of Whelan's Gate Irish Pub on Bloor Street West and, believing it to be discarded, took it home.

Then after seeing a front-page article about the theft in the Bloor West Town Crier, the individual contacted police.

Golden said he suspects thieves grabbed the piece from his garage believing it was made of bronze and, when they realized it had no metal value, got rid of it.

“Baba” is made of a cement-like material and is finished with a bronze patina.

Golden, who keeps several of his large sculptures at home, said now he’ll be more careful with how the work is stored.  

“This was the lightest of the pieces and it should’ve actually been indoors, locked up better than it was,” he said.

“Baba” was found with only a few scratches, which Golden plans to repair in advance of a September exhibit at the Taras Shevchenko Museum in the Junction.