Stolen snake sculpture returns to museum

MIAMI BEACH, Fla., Aug. 21 (UPI) -- A stolen sculpted snake statue purchased from a scrap dealer has been sent back to Miami Beach's Bass Museum of Art.

Artist Frank Joseph Welde told the Miami Herald he returned the piece after learning it had been stolen.

The statute was one of 10 writhing snake sculptures that formed Seduction Forest, an installation by artist Carol Brown. On May 20, 2002 -- a week before the display was to have been removed -- one of the snakes was stolen.

The newspaper said the aluminum statute was subsequently sold for scrap, purchased for $150 by Welde and then exhibited as the work of an unidentified artist in the Miami Beach Botanical Garden -- half a mile from the Bass Museum.

This week, Welde returned it to the museum after one of his clients recognized it and told him that it might have been stolen.

He told the newspaper: "I just thought it was an interesting piece that some artist had gotten down on their luck and had sold it for scrap. Never would I have thought it was a piece of fine art that was stolen."