Statue of Osage Indian woman stolen from KC park was cut into pieces; Charges filed
A 56-year-old man has been charged after a statue of an Osage Indian woman stolen earlier this week from a Kansas City park was found cut into pieces, a police spokeswoman said.
The Clay County prosecuting attorney has charged Charles Fuentes of Kansas City, North, with felony receiving stolen property. He has been arrested and was being held on a $25,000 bond.
“With the public’s assistance and the hard work of our detectives, we have identified a person of interest who has been arrested in regard to the stolen statue,” said Officer Donna Drake, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City Police Department.
“We are sad to report although we have recovered a large portion of the statue, it was cut into pieces prior to the recovery.”
The 400-pound, 7-foot-tall bronze sculpture was stolen earlier this week from the François Chouteau & Native American Heritage Fountain in Kansas City, North.
The $80,000 statue disappeared from the bluff where she stood with two others — an Osage Indian man and French fur-trader François Chouteau. The theft is believed to have happened sometime between Tuesday and Wednesday morning, when it was discovered missing.
According to court documents:
Fuentes and a woman showed up about 3 p.m. Wednesday in a black Ford Fusion at Advantage Metals Recycling in Kansas City, Kansas, and attempted to sell scrap metal that appeared to be large pieces of a bronze statue, a supervisor told police.
The supervisor suspected that the pieces were part of the stolen Osage statue he had seen on the news and contacted KCK police. Officers responded and after comparing the pieces to a photo, they determined it was not the same statue and left, according to court documents.
The supervisor, however, felt that the officers mistakenly looked at the wrong pictures and refused to buy the pieces from Fuentes and the woman, who left. The supervisor found photos online and immediately recognized it as the same statue, only in pieces.
The supervisor had seen the main torso, which was cut open, the head in the torso and two pigtails that were cut from the head. Fuentes allegedly had provided his identification when he attempted to sell the scrap. The supervisor called a Kansas City detective on Thursday, saying what had occurred.
About 2 p.m. on Thursday, the detective and Kansas City police officers went to Fuentes’ home in Kansas City, North, and while there the black Ford Fusion pulled up with Fuentes, a woman and a man inside. Officers allegedly saw Fuentes leaning on a large piece of metal resembling a portion of the body torso of the missing statue in the rear passenger seat.
Police took Fuentes and the two others into custody and the piece of metal was positively identified as part of the missing statute. Also in the car was a business card to River’s Edge Scrap Management in Kansas City, Kansas.
The detective contacted the supervisor there, who said three people had attempted to sell large pieces of bronze that he recognized as being part of the stolen Indian statue. He kept the pieces and refused to give the three people money for them.
The supervisor gave police a photograph of the identification that the three had used for the sale of scrap. The identification allegedly belonged to Fuentes.
During questing, the three allegedly admitted to taking the metal recyclers to sell as scrap metal, according to court documents. Fuentes asked for an attorney before answering additional questions.
The other man was adamant that they had not stolen the statue. He told police that four or five guys had “wrenched” the statue loose, took it down and carried it to a vehicle to haul it off, according to court documents. That man also led police to a house in Independence, where the head of the statue was found.
The sculptures were installed in April 2020 near Northeast Chouteau Trafficway and Northeast Parvin Road in Chouteau Greenway Park. 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.
The three sculptures by Kwan Wu depict Chouteau trading for furs with the two Osage Indians. During the bicentennial celebration, the Chouteau Fountain Founders also unveiled another sculpture — a Kanza Indian hunting near the bluff.
The investigation is ongoing and police asked anyone with information about the case to contact Shoal Creek property crimes detectives at 816-413-3600.
This story was originally published August 6, 2021 at 2:48 PM.
