Bronze Statue Stolen From Public Library
Thanksgiving usually does not have a Grinch but it does now, at least for the Juan Tabo Public Library.
Someone stole a metal sculpture Wednesday morning from in front of the library. KOB Eyewitness News 4 spoke to the artist who created and donated the sculpture. She said she is afraid whoever stole it will sell it as scrap metal.
By day, Rebecca Stover wields the tools of a hair stylist but just about anytime else she is sculpting, making metal into art. One of her favorites is a sculpture she made of her grandson, Shaun Lucero. Up until Wednesday, the statue sat atop a rock in front of the Juan Tabo library.
"That's my grandson at ten years old and I thought how wonderful to have him there frozen in time forever at ten," Stover said.
The half-year process creating it was pain staking, hammering metal into the exact size and likeness of Shaun all the way down to individual strands of hair.
"Every wrinkle in the pants, the way that he sits, the way he holds the book...the title of the book, there's even writing inside of the book there's just a lot of detail," Stover said.
Shaun is now 17, but Stover will forever remember what inspired her to create the sculpture years ago.
"The Juan Tabo Library is where we went every week…got new books, he learned to read from those books," she explained.
Stover said her family is disheartened, including her father, retired Albuquerque Police Chief Bob Stover. She hopes somehow the sculpture will show up soon and that will be a way of giving her family something more to be thankful for.
"It belongs to the library, it belongs to the public...it belongs to the people of the city so they've lost a piece of artwork that I wanted them to have," Stover said.