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St. Paul News
Mathew Holding Eagle III

St. Paul police investigating possible theft of well-known F. Scott Fitzgerald statue 

statue of someone sitting
A statue of author F. Scott Fitzgerald outside the old St. Paul Academy where he attended school in his hometown of St. Paul.
Jim Mone | AP 2009

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The St. Paul Police Department is investigating the suspected theft of an F. Scott Fitzgerald statue that has stood outside the former St. Paul Academy for nearly 20 years. The school is where a young Fitzgerald published some of his early short stories in the school’s magazine. He also wrote his first plays while a student there from 1908-1911. 

The statue’s creator, sculptor Aaron Dysart said he learned about its disappearance Tuesday. 

“I’m still kind of processing, it just kind of comes as a shock that it’s gone,” he said. “I don’t even know what to think about it. So, on the one hand as a joke, I’m like, ‘Wow, somebody liked it as much enough to steal it.’ But who knows what happened to it?” 

Dysart said the statue’s exterior shell was made of bronze and weighed approximately 120-150 lbs. He added the only way it could have been moved was if someone cut it from its base. 

St. Paul Police Public Information Officer Nikki Muehlhausen says investigators are looking for the public’s assistance in the case which she said is short on leads. 

“There wasn’t surveillance video around this area. So, we’re just hoping that if you saw anything out of the ordinary between Feb. 3 and Feb. 7, that anyone just give us a call,” she said. “Fitzgerald is such a proud spot for St Paul. So, this is just kind of one of those very sad, more emotional thefts, the fact that someone would have taken this.” 

A second Fitzgerald statue can be seen in Rice Park in downtown St. Paul. "The Great Gatsby" author was born in the city in 1896. He died of a heart attack in Los Angeles in 1940.