It was Sunday, Sept. 7, when Kevin Kelly, owner of the Houmas House plantation between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, learned that his antique, solid silver statue of Abraham Lincoln had been stolen. The foot-tall Lincoln sat pensively on a bench, stovepipe hat by his side, the weight of history on his shoulders, when suddenly, a nearby window shattered.<\/p>\n
As Kelly explained, a thief had simply walked onto the plantation property, found a small stone statue of a dog outside the 19th-century building, used it to bash in a window, grabbed Lincoln through the broken glass and fled.<\/p>\n
If the thief was a crazed art lover who\u2019d kidnapped the 16th president for his or her own secret collection, Kelly said, he knew he\u2019d never see the statue again. But if the burglar intended to fence the glinting Lincoln on the black market, or sell it for its value as 64 pounds of precious metal \u2013 an estimated 46 grand \u2013 the miscreant might get caught \u2013 and the rare, precious statue could possibly be returned.<\/p>\n
Kelly was right. Last week Lincoln came back home, but not in the condition he had hoped. Heartbreakingly, the stunning little statue had been brutally carved up into chunks, a decapitated torso and other odd shapes. It was far beyond repair.<\/p>\n
The artwork that was stolen in Ascension Parish was disposed of in Metairie.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Saddly, the sculpture of Abraham Lincoln by Gutzon Borglum was cut to pieces by thieves hoping to sell it for the price of the silver it was made from.<\/p>\n
(Photo courtesy of Kevin Kelly)<\/p>\n
Spotted before it got lost in the abyss<\/p>\n
According to Sgt. Brandon Veal, spokesperson for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff\u2019s Office, soon after the theft the department was told to be on the lookout for the stolen Lincoln by investigators in Ascension Parish. Sure enough, the lost Lincoln statue turned up in a handful of suburban New Orleans locations.<\/p>\n
Jefferson Parish investigators identified a 28-year-old named Steve Coronado, of Raceland, as the person who allegedly brought pieces of the statue to pawn shops and a precious metal exchange to sell. At one shop, Coronado sold shavings of silver, according to Veal. At another he received cash for selling a sizeable chunk of the statue. Deputies served a search warrant at a residence on Garden Rd. in Avondale on Sept. 10, recovering yet another piece of the ruined artwork.<\/p>\n
Beth Higgins, manager of the venerable Southern Coin and Precious Metal shop in Metairie, said that someone sold the store a barely recognizable piece of the silver sculpture for $3,300. But she said, the shop staff was already aware of the Lincoln statue theft and \u201cinstantly reached out to the (Sheriff\u2019s Department) investigator before it got lost in the abyss.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to see stolen items returned to the owners,\u201d Higgins said. \u201cThat\u2019s not the game we want to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coronado is locked up at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna after being booked with theft and three counts of possession of stolen property. His bail is set at $37,500. And he wasn\u2019t the only one busted. Alma Fontenot, 20, of New Iberia, and Bruce Shelvin, 49, of Avondale, were each arrested by the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office on counts of simple burglary and felony theft over $25,000, according to reporting by the Advocate newspaper.<\/a><\/p>\n Kevin Kelly, owner of Houmas House, made his money largely in warehouses and real estate in New Orleans. He bought his first warehouse in 1983. Pictured here in foyer of The Carriage House Restaurant on the Houmas House grounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n BY JAN RISHER | Staff writer<\/p>\n No silver lining<\/p>\n The alleged bad guys may have been rounded up in record time, and the silver mostly recovered, but it’s not a happy ending. Houmas House\u2019s little statue of Lincoln was always more than a piece of high-value metal. It was an artistic marvel.<\/p>\n The moody depiction of Lincoln was sculpted by John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum, the same artist who carved Mount Rushmore, the quartet of monumental presidential portraits \u2013 including Lincoln \u2013 chiseled into a mountainside in South Dakota.<\/p>\n According to Kelly, the silver miniature of Lincoln may have been intended as a gift to benefactors who donated to a grand-scale statue of Lincoln that Borglum envisioned, but never completed. The number of identical silver castings that Borglum produced is unknown. But it is certainly a rare artifact.<\/p>\n Houmas House in Darrow<\/p>\n STAFF PHOTO BY ROBIN MILLER<\/p>\n Historical ironies<\/p>\n Kelly, a businesman, bought Houmas House in 2003 and set out to convert the historic site into a \u201cluxury entertainment\u201d destination. Television shows such as “Top Chef” and “The Bachelor” have used the picturesque spot for location shoots.<\/p>\n A couple of years after he bought the property in Darrow, Kelly spotted the silver Lincoln at an upscale garage sale on Audubon Boulevard in New Orleans, where a widow was divesting herself of some of her late husband\u2019s acquisitions. Kelly said he bought the piece for $1,200, which he knew was a \u201cgreat steal.\u201d<\/p>\n It may seem surprising that Borglum\u2019s silver statue of the Great Emancipator would end up on an 18th and 19th-century plantation that long ago profited by the labor of enslaved people. But historically speaking, it was a perfect fit. According to Kelly, as a teenager, Abraham Lincoln traveled south on the Mississippi River in 1828 and 1831, certainly passing the plantation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n