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Tampa Police Corral Horse Sculpture, But Rhino's Missing

News Channel 8 photo by KATE CALDWELL

The metal horse sculpture, by the late area artist Bud Oleson, is about 3 feet high and 4 feet long.

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 10, 2008

Updated: 07/10/2008 02:45 pm

TAMPA - An aluminum horse sculpture stolen from the plaza in front of the Tampa Museum of Art in 1998 has been located in the backyard of a Tampa home and will be returned to its rightful owner.

Meanwhile, a Tampa business's rebar rhino sculpture was stolen this weekend from a fenced-in lot. The rhino is still missing.

"It is a little odd that you have cases come up where we're talking about two different types of animals, one found and one missing," said Tampa Police Department spokeswoman Andrea Davis. "It's not something you see every day. But the crimes themselves, there's definitely no evidence that they're related in any way."

Drew Danecki, vice president of operations for Rustic Steel Creations, built the rhino two years ago and noticed this week that it had gone missing.

He said that given the recent disappearance of his business' sculpture, it was strange to learn that another Tampa sculpture reappeared in a person's backyard.

"The first place we should check is the backyards of people," he said, tongue in cheek. "But that's a large territory that needs to be scoured."

The horse sculpture, by the late area artist Bud Oleson, is about 3 feet high and 4 feet long. It was part of the 1997 Holiday Card Showcase and is a smaller version of the horse sculptures on Bayshore Boulevard.

The Oleson horse does not belong to the city, but officials wanted the piece returned. The horse is made of brown woven metal strips. Part of its face and the bottom part of three of its legs were painted white after it went missing.

"I have it here at the office," said Art Keeble, executive director of the Arts Council of Hillsborough County and coordinator of the showcase.

"It's good to have this one back in the fold," Keeble said.

Keeble said his office got an anonymous message recently from someone who asked whether they had lost a horse a few years ago. He thought it was a prank until Tampa police called this week.

Acting on a tip e-mailed to police, Detective Bob Baxter went out to the address where the horse could be and found it in the back yard.

"I was kind of surprised that it would be there out in the open. It was kind of like, 'Holy cow! There's the horse,' " Baxter said.

Baxter has investigated other art cases. He once worked on a case involving fake art being sold on eBay by a Tampa store. He tried to buy a Picasso and a Chagall for $3,500 combined.

In the horse case, a woman who lives in the home gave Baxter a few stories about how the sculpture came to be in her yard, eventually saying an ex-boyfriend had bought it at a yard sale for $25 in 1998.

The statute of limitations for grand theft is five years.

Even though there is no chance of making an arrest in the case, Baxter is happy that the horse will be returned to its rightful owner. He said he had no evidence indicating the horse was stolen by the people who had been keeping it in their yard on East Clifton Street.

Baxter said he didn't ask the woman whether she had painted the horse. The woman could not immediately be reached for comment.

Keeble said the horse probably is worth a few thousand dollars.

He called Oleson's widow, Louise, to tell her the horse had been found, and he said she wanted it returned to her.

Louise Oleson, who lives on a ranch in Odessa, is in Arcadia visiting her grandchildren and will receive the horse Monday.

Bud Oleson "was regarded as a very good sculptor," Keeble said, "and he died much too young."

The horse hadn't been reported stolen 10 years ago, Baxter said.

"The owner of it kind of shrugged it off as, 'These things happen,' " he said.

Acting on the tip, police researched the horse's disappearance and went looking for it at the home.

The director of the Henry B. Plant Museum, Cynthia Gandee, said she was excited about the discovery.

"It's quite exciting that it hasn't been sold or melted down," she said. "We've lost a variety of things since 1933, and nothing has ever resurfaced."

Drew Danecki, whose business at 114 S. 12th St. lost its rhino, is hopeful that sculpture will resurface as well. A Tampa police report says the piece is valued at $2,000.

Danecki said he knows it's a long shot to find a missing sculpture but that he spent 20 hours working to build the piece two years ago. The rhino, which is 10 feet long, 5 feet wide and weighs a few hundred pounds, is sort of a company mascot.

"When a rhino finds a target, it keeps on the target until it gets what it wants," he said. "That's our company motto."

Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at jpoltilove@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7691.

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