Artists ‘Heartbroken’ Over Stolen and Vandalized Chairs

Artists spend hours, days, and weeks on their work—slowly crafting a piece on their canvas that will match their vision. So, it’s not a surprise that when someone vandalizes or steals their work, they take it personally.

“It’s a lot of hard work to do these,” said artist Lorna Shaw, who painted five chairs for this year’s La Grange Rocks art display. “It’s very disheartening when people are disrespectful of your time and work.”

Only a weekend after the majority of the rocking chairs were put out in downtown La Grange, artists were reporting some minor damage and vandalism to their pieces—including one that was stolen outright.

The Village’s public works department discovered that a Chicago Bulls themed rocking chair was missing from its location just south of Burlington Avenue on La Grange Road on Monday morning.

Western Springs artist Margaret Prescott painted the chair for St. Cletus Parish in La Grange.

“I’m heartbroken, absolutely heartbroken,” Prescott said of finding out the chair was missing. “I really tried to hit a niche this time so that it would do well at auction and benefit the church.”

Her statement echoes that of the La Grange Business Association when they were told the chair was missing.

“[Whoever stole the chair] basically stole from the church,” said Nancy Cummings, executive director of the La Grange Business Association (LGBA). “Not the village, not the LGB. It’s too bad because they took those proceeds [at auction] away from them.”

Prescott agreed that although she was hurt by the theft, she felt bad for St. Cletus Parish who would not only lose their investment, but also miss out on any additional proceeds when the chair was set to be auctioned off on Sept. 9.

Other chairs vandalized during weekend

In addition to the stolen chair, several other rocking chairs were reported to Patch as having been damaged over the weekend.

Shaw reported that the guitar strings on one chair had been snapped, flowers glued to another were broken off, and one of her own chairs with a race car theme had the side mirrors pulled off.

“It takes time to do this and what hurts is the feeling of disrespect,” Shaw said. “We always do a little touching up of the chairs before the auction, so [the artists] will probably spend some time fixing them up again then.”

Shaw also suggested that the damages might not be outright malicious, but rather accidental from too much stress. She asked to remind residents that the chairs—although strong—still need to be treated with the respect one would give to any piece of public art.

Chairs Difficult to secure, police say

Part of the problem this year, police said, was that securing the chairs was more difficult than securing other art display items in the past.

"Unfortunately it's tough to anchor these chairs this year," said La Grange Police Chief Michael Holub. "We want them to be secure, but we also want them to be functional."

This year, the chairs were secured with a piece of wire, which would allow the chairs to move freely, and a bolt screwed into the concrete sidewalks secured the wire.

“We're going to take a look at some way to make them more secure," said Ryan Gillingham, director of the public works department. "But if someone wants it bad enough, they're probably going to be able to take it."

Police, LGBA, and public works officials all said that securing the chairs was a balancing act between function and security—and they hope that the stolen chair was an isolated event.

This year not the first that damage and theft have occurred

“I hope this is just a one time random event,” Cummings said of the stolen chair. “This is the sixth year we’ve been doing this, and in the past we’ve had some minor damage and one other theft.”

When the LGBA put out a display of painted elephants in 2007, Cummings said that one was stolen then as well, but it was later returned to the LGBA—and that’s what she’s hoping for this year as well.

“At this point we’re hoping that some of the security cameras close by might have picked something up, or that it will just get returned by someone.”

But overall, Cummings said she didn’t want this to prevent people from coming downtown to admire and sit in the chairs. With any public art, they are there to be enjoyed—not set up on a platform out of reach, she said.

“It’s about look and touch, stop and sit,” Cummings said. “We want people to come by and enjoy them, that’s what they’re there for.”