Hundreds of gold statuettes of Austria’s most famous composer disappeared from his hometown of Salzburg, officials said Wednesday, leaving a tribute to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on his 270th birthday considerably less crowded. The Mozarteum Foundation on July 15 unveiled 320 statuettes designed by German conceptual artist Ottmar Hörl; each stood less than 20 inches high and showed Mozart with his dog, Pimperl. The exhibition is set to run through Aug. 30, but within two weeks, more than 80 of the polymer figures had disappeared. By Wednesday, a total of 210 were missing.
The mini-Mozarts populated not only the garden of the composer’s former house, but also his living quarters as well as several pavilions. “I didn’t want to do a monument of Mozart. There are already enough of these. I wanted to show his human side, that he was a normal human being despite his genius,” Hörl told the AP. He said he did not believe visitors stole the works but rather that it was an “organized theft.” Hörl intended to sell the statues for about 100 euros ($114) once the exhibition was over, meaning whoever ran away with 210 mini-Mozarts has not become an overnight millionaire; the value is just under $25,000.
For Hörl, who is known from his sculptures made from polymer, the theft of his artworks is nothing new. At an installation in Bayreuth, Germany, a complete array of statues of Richard Wagner was stolen within 10 days. “When you work as an artist in a public space, you mustn’t complain about what is happening there,” Hörl said. “It ranges from destruction to theft. That’s just how it is.”