Sculpture stolen from downtown Coeur d’Alene

A sculpture displayed in downtown Coeur d’Alene as part of a public art program was stolen from a street corner last week. “Great Blue Heron” by Spokane artist Rick Davis was stolen from the corner of Lakeside Avenue and Fourth Street sometime Thursday night or early Friday morning, said Steve Anthony, the city’s recreation director. The owners of a restaurant on that corner noticed the sculpture missing when they arrived Friday morning, Anthony said. They called the city’s Downtown Association director, who called Anthony, who called the police, he said. The sculpture was part of the city’s “ArtCurrents” program, in which sculptures were placed on city street corners in June and will remain for a year. They are offered for sale and the city receives 25 percent of any proceeds. Davis creates his sculptures with scrap metal and had placed a value of $3,000 on the stolen blue heron. However, Anthony said, the metal would not be of value to thieves looking to make money through recycling. The city insures all the artwork, he said. Whoever stole it sawed the sculpture off at the blue heron’s legs, which were made of rebar. “A lot of people — artists, installers — put a significant effort into this,” Anthony said. “We’re going to have to … think about what kind of art we’re going to put downtown because we don’t want to eliminate the smaller pieces.”