This fountain was a fixture in KC since the 1950s – until it was vandalized. What is the next?

A historic landmark in the ‘City of Fountains’ known as the William Volker Memorial Fountain stands near the Kansas City Country Club Plaza, featuring five carved figures. But after the vandal attacks, only three of these figures remained intact.

Now, the city faces a potentially steep price tag to repair the fountain.

An unidentified suspect removed an arm and fingers from one of the structures and a leg from another, Kansas City Parks and Recreation Director Chris Cotten said in an interview with The Star. The statue was defaced on May 19.

“In this specific case, I would say that because this fountain had a high brass (and) copper content, it was vandalized for scrap, for money,” Cotten said. “That would be exactly the reason for that.”

Cotten said there would be “no other reason” to deface the statue.

“We don’t have these problems with artwork that isn’t made of brass or copper,” he said.

The fountain was created in the 1950s by Swedish sculptor Carl Milles, according to the Millesgården Museum In Sweden.

The five-figure statue was one of Milles’ last pieces before his death and depicts Saint Martin of Tours, patron saint of France, as the central figure, according to the Parks and Recreation website. Saint Martin is surrounded by four other figures, including a beggar, a faun and two angels.

The beggar and the faun were the two damaged figures, Fountain City Foundation President Mark McHenry said in an interview with The Star.

The fountain was dedicated on September 20, 1958, and was created as a memorial to William Volker, a prominent Kansas City philanthropist, according to the City of Fountains Foundation. It was originally located in Frank A. Theis Park, but was moved to its current location in the 1990s, according to Parks & Rec.

‘Could be substantial’

The damage to the statue won’t be cheap to repair, Cotten said. They contacted the Millesgården Museum in Sweden to see if they could help repair the statue. Cotten hopes the museum will have the original molds from which the statue was created.

“So if we can get our hands on molds or replicas of molds and melt and pour them again, or figure out a way to get a 3D scan so we can replicate them, that’s what we’re working on. right now,” said Cotten. “But I don’t have definitive answers because we haven’t received a response from Sweden yet.”

The City of Fountains Foundation is helping Parks & Rec with the project, said City of Fountains Foundation President Mark McHenry. A donation page on the Cidade das Fontes website allows anyone to make a donation to repair the fountain.

Because the team does not have access to the stolen parts of the statue, there is currently no estimated cost for the project, McHenry said.

“I will say it could be substantial,” McHenry said. “Which isn’t a number, it’s just the fact that this is a little challenging.”

There is currently no deadline for repair. McHenry said it will be completed “as quickly as possible, but that’s easier said than done.”

This isn’t the first time a statue has been defaced in Kansas City. More than two years ago, the Children’s Fountain in North Kansas City faced a similar fate. Signs were stolen from the fountain and had to be recreated with a fiberglass material made to look like brass, Cotten said.

“So they have no scrap value and they haven’t been touched since we replaced them,” he explained.

McHenry recalled another case a few years ago when a statue of an Osage woman was stolen in the Northland. The police managed to recover the pieces of the statue and it was welded back together.

“There is precedence for this,” McHenry said. “The big difference here, of course, is that we don’t have the parts.”

Meanwhile, the criminal investigation into the vandalism continues.

A detective with the Kansas City Police Department is working to collect and process evidence in the crime and “remains hopeful that we will generate some leads,” KCPD spokeswoman Alayna Gonzalez said in an email to The Star .