A $17,000 replica of the figurehead that adorns Dundee’s iconic HMS Unicorn ship has been stolen in New Zealand.
The sculpture was made for a homeowner in Nelson, on the country’s South Island, and hung outside the property.
Caleb Harcus paid $17,000 (about £8,890) for the statue and put it in the garden of the house on the coastal Rocks Road.
But radio station RNZ reports that the sculpture has since been taken by thieves.
Except for its wooden horn, the statue was polystyrene and was painstakingly replicated in Auckland – with Scotland’s royal banner of arms substituted for Nelson’s coat of arms – before being coated with 12 layers of paint.
It is not clear what inspired the New Zealand replica.
Sculpture thieves went to ‘grand old effort’
Mr Harcus says the thieves went to a “grand old effort” to remove the sculpture – as it was held above the ground by three poles and bolted to concrete pad.
He told Local Democracy Reporter Max Frethey: “They would have had to get a good look at it and figure out how it was bolted and use the appropriate tools to get it down.
“I spent way too much getting the ship’s figurehead carved.
“But the carver did such a beautiful job of it.”
The theft happened while the house was vacant, following a major mudslide in August 2022 – which damaged multiple properties in the area.
Mr Harcus had been renting out the house at the time.
The future of the property, known as Red House, remains uncertain – as it is one of several still not accessible due to safety concerns.
HMS Unicorn was launched in 1824 and was originally constructed as a 46-gun frigate.
It is one of the oldest surviving ships in the world.
US Billionaire John Paul DeJoria, co-founder of Paul Mitchell hair products, recently pledged £20,000 towards vital repairs to the ship, which could cost as much as £1 million.
There are multi-million-pound plans to eventually move it to a dry dock as part of a maritime museum project.
