More Bad News for Breonna Taylor Bust

Artist Leo Carson believes it was stolen
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 30, 2020 7:47 AM CST
Vandalized Breonna Taylor Bust Disappears
The bust of Breonna Taylor is pictured after suffering damage over the weekend.   (GoFundMe)

First a bust of Breonna Taylor was vandalized in Oakland, Calif. Now it’s disappeared altogether. Oakland Police are investigating reports that the ceramic bust of a smiling Taylor was stolen from Latham Square on Tuesday, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Days earlier, the bust had been smashed, leaving a chip in Taylor's face and chunks missing from the side and back of the bust, created by artist Leo Carson. KGO reporter Liz Kreutz was at the scene Tuesday, along with Carson, who told her there were no leads on who might have taken the bust.

Though Carson didn't have a permit to place the statue in the square, he doesn't think city officials intervened. "If someone has good intentions and removed it without telling me, that is an enormous mistake," he tells the Chronicle. But "I think it was stolen." He now plans to fill the plinth with concrete to prevent anyone from taking it as well. That may also help prepare the plinth for a bronze replacement bust, for which Carson has raised more than $24,000. "The bronze casting process will take months to complete and the base will also have to be reconstructed to support the additional weight," Carson writes on a GoFundMe page. (More Breonna Taylor stories.)

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