![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/032526_moonrock_2.jpeg\")
A sculpture of a body bag placed where Murmur used to sit, with an accompanying artist statement on Oct. 29, 2025.Courtesy of Allie Weill<\/p>\nHalloween morning, 2025 \u2014 in the SAFE Credit Union Plaza, a sculpture of a black plastic body bag sits on a wooden pedestal surrounded by a fence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A piece of paper was taped to the fence that read:<\/p>\n
\u201cThis sculptural work serves as both memorial and misremembering – a marker for those who looked upon Lunar Specimen 12038,7, a fragment of the moon brought to Earth in 1969, and affectionately called it “salt lick.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
A sculpture of a body bag placed where Murmur used to sit, with an accompanying artist statement on Oct. 29, 2025.Courtesy of Allie Weill<\/p>\n
The body bag sat in place of a sculpture that had gone missing. The missing sculpture was made of a clear acrylic resin and was modeled after the shape of a moon rock brought back from the 1969 Apollo 12 moon landing.<\/p>\n
But to a lot of people, it looked like a salt lick\u2014like for horses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lunar Specimen 12038,7, or as it is now officially known as \u201cMurmur,\u201d was installed in 2021. As time wore on, it grew increasingly guarded. First cones, then caution tape, then a fence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Allie Weill lives about a fifteen minute walk from it and, when going on walks around the neighborhood, loved seeing the sculpture.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then, one night in late September, Murmur was gone. She was concerned.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had this idea come to me to put up a missing sign. Much like someone would put up a lost cat or dog sign walking around the neighborhood,\u201d Weill said. \u201cI often see those kinds of signs as well. And I thought it would just bring a little joy to anyone who happened to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weill\u2019s missing poster linked to a Google Form where people could share their love for Murmur, memories, and the purported whereabouts of the big pink moon rock.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/032526_moonrock_3.jpeg\")
Allie Weill\u2019s missing poster for Murmur, also known as Lunar Specimen 12038, 7 on Oct. 28 2025.Courtesy of Allie Weill<\/p>\n
One of Weill\u2019s favorites read:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the cradle of my heart, the arms of my memories,\u201d the entry read. \u201cPlease, my pink goddess, return and bless this convention center.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another, maybe a little less reverent, read:<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps a large horse alien took it back to its lair to lick.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, one entry that read \u201cIt went home for the holidays, it\u2019ll return refreshed and renewed,\u201d was right on the mark.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/032526_moonrock_4.jpg\")
Jiayi Young leans on Murmur wrapped for transport in her UC Davis lab on March 23, 2026.Ruth Finch\/CapRadio<\/p>\n
Jiayi Young, the artist who created Murmur, had no idea that the neighborhood would miss it as much as it did.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She\u2019s a design professor at UC Davis, and when the 8,000 pound rock was fully removed, it did go back home to her shop on campus. It needed some repairs after some particularly forceful public engagement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were unfortunately two very harsh skateboarding impacts to the sculpture that created damage,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n
So, after class was out for the holidays, Murmur is in fact returning this week to the convention center \u2014 refreshed and renewed.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/032526_moonrock_5.jpg\")
Murmur, weighing in at 8,000 pounds, getting forklifted out of Jiayi Young\u2019s lab at UC Davis to be transported back to the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center.Ruth Finch\/CapRadio<\/p>\n
Weill said she\u2019s happy to see the public art piece back and part of the public space, and she\u2019s glad to see people responding to her posters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so glad for the people in the community who engaged in some way with my little bit of mischief back in the fall,\u201d Weill said. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the joys of living in a city like Sacramento.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young said she made the piece as an ode to human curiosity, and the way space has played a role in history. She said that if you listen closely to the piece you can hear its namesake: a murmur of outer space.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the cosmic microwave map of the known universe. The sound is a mapping of all the pixels on that map, left to right, top to bottom,\u201d Young said, \u201cAs if we\u2019re actually sweeping the entire known universe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here’s a sample of the audio from Murmur, courtesy of Jiayi Young:<\/p>\n
According to Young, she wanted to make a piece symbolic of humanities curiosity, but also the consequences of that curiosity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are incredibly courageous in tackling those curiosities and solve problems, make discoveries at the same time,\u201d Young said. \u201cWe are also very good at extracting, exploiting, exploiting the resources that we have on Earth or beyond.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She felt inspired by the role this curiosity has played in the United States\u2019 history as a global power.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother train of thought that went into Murmur was [what] the moon landing, the backdrop of the moon landing had to do with the Cold War,\u201d Young said. \u201c[What] political and geopolitical tensions between East and West had to do with the race with the Soviet Union.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young has made quite a few pieces of public art over her career, and she said she always comes back to a particular quote of the late Jane Goodall when making pieces that are for the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to make sure that you all understand that each and every one of you have a role to play. You may not know it, you may not find it, but your life matters,\u201d Young said. \u201cAnd you\u2019re here for a reason. And I want you to understand that we are part of the natural world. And even today, where the planet is dark, there still is hope.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Murmur sits in the SAFE Credit Union Plaza at 1301 L St in downtown Sacramento, CA.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Follow us for more stories like this<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
CapRadio provides a trusted source of news because of you. \u00a0As a nonprofit organization, donations from people like you sustain the journalism that allows us to discover stories that are important to our audience. If you believe in what we do and support our mission, please donate today.<\/p>\n