Ceramic banana slug sculpture stolen from Morris Graves Museum
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Ceramic banana slug sculpture stolen from Morris Graves Museum
Morris the banana slug sculpture was installed in the Melvin Schuler Sculpture Garden of the Morris Graves Museum of Art. (Courtesy of Humboldt Arts Council)
EUREKA, Calif. — The ceramic banana slug sculpture, Morris, also known as Morrie, was stolen fromthe Melvin Schuler Sculpture Garden in the Morris Graves Museum of Art (MGMA) early Sunday morning.
The banana slug was created bylocal artists Shannon Sullivan and Jessica Swan for the 2024Eureka Street Art Festival.
Local artists Shannon Sullivan and Jessica Swan with Morris the banana slug sculpture they created for the 2024 Eureka Street Art Festival. (Courtesy of Humboldt Arts Council)
The Humboldt Arts Council said sometime between 9 p.m. on Nov. 2 and 11 a.m. on Nov. 3, the thief(s) cut the lock and chain that secures the Sculpture Garden gate and pried Morris from his post on the Seventh Street side of the MGMA.
The Humboldt Arts Council says sometime between 9 p.m. Nov. 2 and 11 a.m. Nov. 3, Morris the banana slug sculpture was stolen from the Melvin Schuler Sculpture Garden in the Morris Graves Museum of Art. (Courtesy of Humboldt Arts Council)
This was after the MGMA welcomed over 800 community members on the night of Saturday, Nov. 2 for Arts Alive, amonthly celebration of the arts and town art walk. Officials say Morris was still there when staff locked up for the night.
“We are devastated by the theft of our beloved Morris the Slug. Art is meant to connect the community and bring us together," said Jemima Harr, Executive Director-Curator of the Humboldt Arts Council. "In such a divided time it is art that can unite us, and that is what Morris was intended to do.”
Humboldt Arts Council staff are working closely with the Eureka Police Department and ask the public’s assistance in keeping an eye out and an ear open to any information of where Morris the Slug might be or who might have taken off with him.
Harr added, “Public art is meant to be freely accessible to all, and it is so disheartening that someone would intentionally take it away from the community.”