Vandal strikes beloved statue
Amputation of arm is latest desecration to hit public artwork
The Angel of Grief statue at the Stanford University campus is seen missing its left arm after it was vandalized Tuesday.
STANFORD — A vandal has amputated the graceful marble arm of Stanford University’s weeping Angel of Grief, a statue erected by Jane Stanford in 1901 to honor the loss of her beloved brother Henry Clay Lathrop.
The arm, crafted of fine Italian Carrara marble, once drooped mournfully over a memorial. Now it is gone, stolen last week from its isolated site in Stanford’s wooded Arboretum.
“Why would someone hack off the arm of an angel — a symbol that is so pure an expression of love and commitment and faith?” asked Stanford archaeologist Laura Jones.
“We take it very personally,” she said. “The violence is disrespectful to Mrs. Stanford, to the campus and to the whole concept of grief and love and loss.”
Stanford police are asking the public for help with any information about the missing arm — valued at $15,000 to $20,000 but representing so much more.
The statue is a replica of a piece admired in a Roman cemetery by Jane Stanford, who founded the university with her husband, Leland Sr., after the death of their 15-year-old son, Leland Jr.
Sculpted in 1894 by William Wetmore Story as a gravestone for the artist and his wife, the Angel of Grief broke from the traditions of its time by showing raw human emotion, rather than a formal heroic pose.
Jane Stanford was deeply devoted to her brother, who assisted her with philanthropy and attended the birth of her son, according to Jones. Born in Albany, New York, he was an agent of the steamship line that ran between Sacramento and San Francisco. Then he became ill and moved in with the Stanford family, dying at their home in 1899 at age 55.
The delicate arm of the 7-ton statue, which was carved from a single block of marble by the Bernieri brothers in Tuscany, required a special case to survive the three-month journey in 1901 from Italy to New Orleans,