It seems like a public art fiasco. A decade old missing aluminum horse sculpture was found in someones backyard about the same  time as a rhino sculpture was nicked from outside a Tampa business. Seems like the Tampa police will need to take art appreciation lessons if this continues.
Someone obviously fancied themselves as a bit of an artist,as they gave the horse sculpture a bit of a once over with white paint.  They weren’t very imaginative though, painting three legs and part of its face. The horse was discovered after a tip off. Hmm the lady of the house claims her ex bought it at a yard sale for $25 ( Don’t tell Antique Roadshow!). And no, she ain’t confessing to the paint job either. The horse will be going back to the artist’s widow.
The Rhino sculpture on the other hand is still missing. The rhino, which is 10 feet long, 5 feet wide and weighs a few hundred pounds, was last seen outside a business on 12th street.

UPDATE : Stop the presses, Rhino sculpture has been found. The 200lb  steel sculpture was found dumped in the parking lot of the Round Up bar on W. Hillsborough Avenue. 

The bust of famed surfer George Freeth is gone. Dude, took everything except the big cement base. So who was George Freeth? Freeth braved the waves of California in the early 1900’s to become a surfing legend. Prior to him, people were pretty much too scared to go beyond the breakers. Now look at them ! The bust was created by sculptor Terry O’Donnell some 31 years ago and placed on the Redondo Beach pier.The bust was pretty much ignored until recently, when news stories began emerging about the dude that was credited with bringing surfing to California . Imagine the fate of the Beach Boys without him ! Freeth died in 1919,at the age of 36, during the influenza pandemic. Police suspect that the increased interest in Freeth has led to a souvenir hunter taking his bust.

UPDATE : Body Glove owner has offered a $5,000 reward for the return of the Freeth bust. 

Dinopig, the life size plastic pig sculpture, has been found. The pig was part of a public art project in Bath, England. Dinopig is one of 100 swine statues found throughout Bath City and the second pig to be stolen in the past four weeks. The pigs are part of an exhibition telling the 3,000 year old legend of how King Bladud founded Bath while walking his pet pigs. The pig, which was worth around 750 pounds, was found near a children’s playground. The police are hoping to catch the swines responsible for Dinopigs disappearance!

A bronze statue of a girl holding an ice cream cone has and a balloon has been found at a San Gabriel Valley scrap yard. The $25,000 statue was nicked from a real estate company in July. Unfortunately the balloon was missing from the statue and is believed to have been already smelted. The culprit was trying to sell the statue for $180. Was it worth the trouble? Maybe he would have been better off trying to sell it as a garden ornament!

I sure hope this ain’t a Cowparade Cow, but I have just been informed that a decapitated cow statue has been found dumped in Cheyenne Lane, Fort Worth, Texas. No word yet if it is the Southlake cow but all indications, so far, are suggesting it is. The Southlake cow was worth about $1000, but  now, without it’s head, it may be deemed worthless. When will the world stop messing with the CowParade cows (haven’t they been through enough).

The 400 pound bronze statue that once stood outside the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood has been found on a farm. Three years after the thieves cut the bolts of the Ammunition Plant worker statue which attached it to its base it was found lying in a paddock. The statue was originally erected in 2001 and then vanished in July 2005.The general consensus was that the statue had been melted down for money.
The statue was erected in honor of the  48 men who were killed and the 46 workers injured when an explosion ripped through the plant on the 5th of June, 1942 (during World War II). Problem now seems to be what to do with it. A $30,000 replacement statue now stands in its place!

The Old Garden State Park racetrack (New Jersey) won’t be getting their $500,000 bronze horse statue back. Ian MacDonald has been charged with cutting it off at its base and selling it to a salvage yard after police were given a tip off.  How did he do that? One ton bronze horse wouldn’t have been the easiest thing in the world to move (lucky it didn’t fall on him!). What must really peeve the owners of the horse statue is Mr MacDonald got $4,000 for his efforts. Surely the owners of the Salvage Yard should have been charged. A guy walks into their yard with a big bronze horse under his arm. Dah its stolen!

The Bloomingdale High School (Tampa) has had their 400-lb anatomically correct bronze bull statue returned (just in case you were wondering) Yes, the school mascot was stolen from its anchors Monday Night. Following a tip off the big bovine was found in a storage facility.No arrests have been made as of yet.