Stolen War Memorial statue found
in lake off Windmill Pointe

A police dive team on a training exercise found a lost treasure in the waters of Lake St. Clair Wednesday morning—a statue valued at $100,000, stolen from the Grosse Pointe War Memorial eight years ago.

"The Nude," a 7-foot bronze by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth that once graced a reflecting pool on the War Memorial grounds, was found by divers in 20 feet of water near the foot of Alter Road. After hoisting the piece off the bottom, police called local art curators to see if anyone could identify it, said Joel Stone, curator with the Detroit Historical Society. The piece was identified almost immediately as being the one taken in May 2001 by thieves who cut copper pipes and dragged the 500-pound piece to a waiting vehicle. An unverified Detroit Free Press account described a rash of similar art thefts around the same period, although they were never linked. Thieves took pieces from Marygrove College, the Fisher Mansion, University of Detroit Mercy and other locations around the metro area.

Stone described "The Nude" as in amazingly good shape despite her long sleep on the lake bottom.

"A few zebra mussels, but other than that, she looks good," he said.

Officials at the War Memorial were thrilled to see their lost property after eight years. The theft was obviously done by professionals, and "we were told it was probably in the Middle East," said War Memorial President Mark Weber. He and Stone could only speculate on how "The Nude" ended up in the water. The piece was wrapped in coaxial cable, suggesting she may have been dumped with the intention of later retrieval. Or, "maybe she was being transferred to a boat and somehow was dropped," Stone said.

The piece was insured, and the War Memorial collected on its policy, Weber said, adding he is unsure where the nude maiden will end up.

"Most of our art is replicas," he said. "We're a public building, we have weddings here. You don't want a champagne cork going through a painting." Weber would say only that if the piece is reinstalled at the facility's Alger House, "it won't be outside."

Editor's note: This story corrects inaccurate dates from an earlier version, and adds official comment.

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