The lady vanishes! Mermaid statue missing from Beaufort park
A missing mermaid statue making the rounds on social media around Beaufort this week was likely removed from its spot in a city park in December or January, local residents and the statue's creator said Friday.
The disappearance of "Mermaid de Liberte" was recently brought to the attention of the Arts Council of Beaufort, which commissioned a series of mermaids for Beaufort's Big Swim art project in 2006 and 2007.
The statue in Logan Park likely has been missing since December or January, according to the statue's artist, Brenda Beasley-Forrest, and park neighbor Caren Ross.
Ross, who lives on Bay Street, said Friday she first noticed the mermaid was missing from her post after returning home from a trip to Portugal before Christmas.
Ross and her husband think the statue was still in the park when they left the country. They initially thought the statue had been removed for repairs, since the solar-powered torch she held wasn't working properly.
But they soon realized something was wrong.
Beasley-Forrest said a friend told her the statue was missing in late January. She, too, initially thought it had been moved by the city or the landscaping crews that clean up the park.
"It's a mystery to me," she said Friday.
The head of cataloging for the Beaufort County Library system and a Statue of Liberty aficionado, Beasley-Forrest spent four months decorating her mermaid sculpture. She cut each of the 2,200 stamps of the Statue of Liberty from around the world to resemble scales, built a crown out of shells, and created a tanktop from fishnets.
After the statue was commissioned as part of the "100 Mermaids by 100 Local Artists" -- a program sponsored by the Arts Council and the City of Beaufort Public Art Commission -- it was installed outside the Beaufort Post Office on Charles Street for six months, Beasley-Forrest said.
It was then moved to Logan Park -- with the city's permission-- after the mermaids were auctioned off to benefit the Arts Council in 2007.
One of those buyers, Bruce Doneff, said he had noticed the statue was gone in recent months. He contacted Beasley-Forrest and Arts Council members on his Facebook page. He said the mystery has been a hot topic among Beaufortonians on social media.
Although a police report on the missing mermaid statue was believed to have been filed, Beaufort Police Department spokeswoman Cpl. Hope Able said no reports about a missing or stolen statue were filed between Dec. 1 and Jan. 31, or more recently, between March 1 and Friday.
Attempts to reach the city's planning department -- which has handled concerns about the missing statue -- for comment Friday were unsuccessful.
"Mermaid de Liberte" is not the first mermaid statue to vanish nor is it the only one missing.
In January 2007, a Beaufort man was charged with grand larceny after he allegedly took the statue "Sadie the Sea Quilter" from her location on Bay Street. Police were alerted to the theft when witnesses saw the statue's arm sticking out the back window of a Honda sedan as it drove down the street about a week before the man's arrest.
"Auntie Bellum," a mermaid located on Craven Street, has been missing for nearly a year, Arts Council managing director Laura Maxey said.
Maxey said the lack of awareness about the missing statues made her worry the art wasn't being properly cared for and protected. She wants it clearly determined who is responsible for checking on the city's public art and reporting thefts and vandalism.
For now, Ross hopes the familiar statue will return to the park where she walks her dog daily.
"We miss it," Ross said. "It's easy to say to people we live in the house next to the mermaid."
Follow reporter Matt McNab at twitter.com/IPBG_Matt.
Related content:
- This just in: Mermaids live in Beaufort, June 1, 2013
This story was originally published April 24, 2015 at 4:38 PM with the headline "The lady vanishes! Mermaid statue missing from Beaufort park."