University Art Museum banner stolen



By Allison Baldwin
Online Forty-Niner
Editorial Assistant


The theft of a banner from the University Art Museum has left police searching for suspects and the museum wondering why its new banner was targeted.

“ Do [people] not like our museum enough that they would steal from us?” asked UAM Public Relations Director Sarah G. Vinci.

Vinci arrived on campus Monday morning to find the new banner, worth an estimated $1,500, missing. The museum filed a report with campus police shortly after 10 a.m. Monday. Police said the banner was stolen sometime between 8 a.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Monday. The vinyl banner was from the west-facing wall of the museum, which connects to the Horn Center in North Campus. Museum officials believe the perpetrators climbed up poles connected to the banner to remove it from the wall. According to University Police Captain Stan Skipworth, there were no suspects as of Monday.

“ One person couldn’t have done it,” Vinci said. “I don’t think it was vindictive. I think it was a prank.”

Skipworth said the charges filed against the perpetrators will depend on the circumstances of the banner’s discovery. If the police believe the person found with the banner stole it from the museum, that person will be charged with theft. A person found with the banner could also be charged with possession of stolen property.

The College of the Arts purchased the new banner for UAM in September as part of the museum’s re-branding efforts. UAM changed logos when Christopher Scoates took over as the museum’s new director. Scoates was attending an alumni event in Seattle when the banner was taken.

The brick wall above Maren Hassinger’s sculpture, “Evening Shadows” will remain bare until the banner is recovered or replaced with money from the budget.

“ It was brand new and we love[d] it,” Vinci said. “We are sad that someone would steal it.”

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