Someone stole the female Osage Indian statue at Chouteau Heritage Fountain in Kansas City
A 400-pound, 7-foot-tall bronze sculpture of a female Osage Indian at the François Chouteau & Native American Heritage Fountain in Kansas City, North, has been stolen.
Heidi Markle, spokeswoman for the Kansas City Park and Recreation Department, confirmed in an email that the $80,000 statue disappeared from a bluff where she stood with two other sculptures — a male Osage Indian and French fur-trader François Chouteau.
The theft is believed to have happened sometime overnight Tuesday. It was discovered missing on Wednesday morning.
“Someone has taken this one of a kind sculpture that was done by Kwan Wu and a part of this great project here in Kansas City,” said Mark McHenry, co-chair with the Chouteau Fountain Founders organization and former director of Kansas City’s Park and Recreation.
“Who took this? No idea.” he said. “It’s very heavy and its on top of a 12-foot bluff so it’s not an easy thing to take. It’s not a snatch and grab or whatever.”
The sculptures were installed in April 2020 near Northeast Chouteau Trafficway and Northeast Parvin Road. They were the site of a celebration commemorating Missouri’s Bicentennial on July 24. Chouteau, who came up the Missouri River and set up a fur trading post in the area in 1821 is considered to be the founder of Kansas City, McHenry said.
“That is why this is very, very significant,” he said.
During the bicentennial celebration, the Chouteau Fountain Founders also unveiled another sculpture — a Kanza Indian hunter that stands near the bluff.
“We are concerned about the future of the pieces that are still here too,” McHenry said.
McHenry said the theft is frustrating, calling the artwork “one of a kind” and part of a collection.
“We had to raise a lot of money both privately and publicly to build what’s here today,” he said. “There’s a second phase of this that has a fountain. We’re still trying to raise money and create public awareness for this. But this is not the way you want to have public awareness.”
There was no indication as to why the statue was stolen. McHenry said he hopes it wasn’t so that someone could cut it up and sell the material as salvage.
“The police are here today and they’re going to do a full investigation on it,” he said. “Hopefully we can find out what happened.”
Anyone with information about the theft is asked to call Kansas City police detective Mark Spiegel at 816-413-3425.
The memorial depicts Chouteau trading for furs with the two Osage Indians, according to chouteaufountain.org.
The fountain was the vision of Keith Nelson, a local historian, neighborhood activist and fountain enthusiast, who wanted to honor Chouteau and the American Indians from the area more than 10 years ago. He passed away in April.
Dana Nelson, also co-chair with the Chouteau Fountain Founders, said she was rather glad her husband wasn’t alive to see that the sculpture had been stolen. He would have been very upset and disappointed.
“First I was extremely angry,” she said of the emotions she went through. “And then I was hurt that if someone would devalue something that was an original piece of art by Kwan Wu. Kwan Wu is well known worldwide as a sculptor and I just, I just can’t believe that it even happened.”
Nelson said if she could, she would tell whoever took it to just bring it back if they haven’t already destroyed it. It’s part of the community’s history. She added it won’t deter their efforts to complete the fountain.
“We’re going to continue on,” she said. “No matter what, it’s going to get done. This is just a little setback.”
This story was originally published August 4, 2021 at 1:37 PM.
