Part of a bronze statue in La Center is gone and residents are concerned it was stolen, but Police Chief Marc Denney isn’t sure.
“We don’t know if we even have a victim,” he said. “It was never reported as stolen by property owners.”
What makes it tricky is the statue is on the property of a vacant building once owned by TDS Telecom, formerly the Lewis River Telephone Co. The building is set to be auctioned Nov. 13. A representative from TDS could not be reached for comment on Friday.
Denney said the building has been vacant for some time, and he’s not sure if the statue was stolen or simply moved.
The statue in question is called “Mother Bathing Child,” by Battle Ground artist Jim Demetro, who was given the Clark County Arts Commission Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.
He sculpted the piece, his first, in 1994, according to Columbian archives. It depicts an American Indian woman washing her daughter’s hair. The woman holds a bucket in her hands out of which water pours continuously over the girl’s head.
Demetro’s work can be seen throughout the county, including the Capt. George Vancouver sculpture at Sixth and Esther streets, in the Vancouver Farmer’s Market; “A Gift for You,” showing an elderly man receiving a flower from a young girl in Esther Short Park; and four oversized salmon adorning the Salmon Run Bell Tower.
Demetro could not be reached for comment on Friday either.
La Center resident Debby Cochran thinks the statue was partly stolen because only the mother is missing. The daughter is still there.
“It really, really saddened me,” Cochran said.
Cochran and others in La Center hope the building will be turned into a cultural arts center, an idea Cochran said came to her while looking at the statue.
“It’s a beautiful building with lots of windows and natural light perched on a hill overlooking the water,” she said. “(The mother in the statue) was the inspiration I had for that building being a wonderful center for the La Center community.”
