GRAND FORKS — Seven months after its disappearance, the North Dakota Museum of Art’s “Garden Wheel” sculpture was found next to a dumpster behind the Southgate Casino, Bar and Grill.
The sculpture was turned in to police on Thursday, May 25, by two people who said they’d noticed it when they brought some items out to the alley while spring cleaning. They will receive a $1,000 reward, which the museum offered back when the piece went missing.
“I think there were people who assumed that it would just show up in a week or two,” museum director Matthew Wallace said. “I think there were people who thought that ‘oh, by the end of (the season) it’ll show up.’ Then we … got into the end of the school year and – all of a sudden – it was spotted leaning up against a dumpster. … It was a shock for everyone, I think, that it came back.”
The piece, which was stolen on Oct. 31, 2022 , had been a fixture at the NDMOA’s outdoor sculpture garden since the late 1990s.
Made of ceramic tile, the piece is very fragile, so Wallace assumed it would be badly damaged. Only six to eight tiles were broken, though.
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“I think everyone was surprised that it was in very good condition,” Wallace said.
The necessary repairs will be paid for, at least in part, with the $775 originally raised to replace the “Garden Wheel.” Once the University Police Department returns the piece to the NDMOA, it will be put into storage until repairs can be made.
“We can take a look at it and photograph it,” Wallace said. “… The artist lives on the East Coast, so we’re going to send her some broken tiles so that she can try to color match and see if we can replace those pieces.”
If the artist, Elizabeth MacDonald, has any of the pieces in her inventory, the repair should be a fairly quick process, Wallace said.
“If she doesn’t, either she will have to remake those tiles, or we’ll try to find someone local who can color match them and try to redo them here – with her permission,” Wallace said.
Who took the sculpture, and where it’s been all this time, is still unknown. The museum doesn’t plan to look into it further, and UPD Police Chief Rodney Clark said it would be extremely difficult to identify the culprit because the piece was gone for an extended period of time.
“It’s actually a success story,” Clark said. “A lot of these things (missing for so long) … don’t get found again, but this was a different story that had a positive outcome.”
Even if there are surveillance cameras near the dumpster, footage of whoever left the sculpture could be deleted by now, especially because many surveillance systems automatically delete old footage.
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Both Clark and Wallace theorize that the sculpture was kept in an apartment before the tenant moved out for the summer, but unless someone comes forward with information, the truth will likely remain a mystery.
“We really just don’t know what happened to it, or where it’s been,” Wallace said. “We’re just happy that it’s back and can be repaired.”