A sculpture commemorating Ernest Hemingway is missing from outside the Beaver Island Public Library.
Library officials say they noticed the statue was missing last week, but didn’t immediately report it as stolen.
Patrick Mcginnity, director of the Beaver Island District Library, said the nine foot structure is bright orange and hard to miss.
“The first thing I did was contact the artist himself to find out if there was some sort of maintenance that it was being taken down for some reason that I hadn’t heard about and he said he didn’t know anything about it. We started treating it as a theft at that point.”
Mcginnity said the sculpture is valued at $20,000.
“Still kind of mystifies me why it was taken. There’s no bad blood with the library at this time. If it was a prank it’s obviously one that went way too far and I don’t understand why it hasn’t shown up.”
Mcginnity said so far the police have no leads on the who may have taken the sculpture. The Beaver Island ferry has been notified not to allow it to leave the island.
The work was part of the Hemingway Sculpture Project commemorating the writer's time in Michigan.
