Friday, July 22

Two Calder's sculptures missing since 1984 in Rio de Janeiro

As today Calder would have celebrated his 113th birthday I cannot help remembering that Rio de Janeiro's city hall took these two works by Calder from the park where they were for restoration but in November, 1985 they disappeared.
Nobody knows what happened and they are missing till today 26 years later.
It was a scandal and many people have manifested in newspapers wrote letters and petitions to the mayor and even the police has a record of the occurrence but they are still missing.
The right one, Stable, 1941, was a donation by Calder during the acquisition of the mobile "Rio", 1951, by Rio de Janeiro government.
Another work by the Brazilian sculptor Sérgio Camargo was broken last Mars and it is still there as if nothing had happened.
They were really amazing and I have a very good recollection being at the park and stopping to interact with one of the sculptures that were there.
This is a shame.
Happy birthday Alexander Calder but be careful to whom you donate your work.