[MSN] LEADING Tasmanian sculptor Stephen Walker is shattered by the theft of four sculptures worth as much as $70, 000.

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Sculptor left devastated


October 02, 2007 12:00am
LEADING Tasmanian sculptor Stephen Walker is shattered by the theft of four
sculptures worth as much as $70,000.

Mr Walker, in hospital with a leg infection, said the four portrait
sculptures worth between $50,000 and $70,000 were stolen from his home at
Campania. 

He said the thief must have been someone who had visited as a guest. 

He said the theft was most likely overnight on Friday. 

The sculptures were of Vincent Serventy, AM, who until his death recently
was president of the Council of the Wildlife Preservation Society of
Australia, former cricketer David Boon, artist Lloyd Rees and prominent
Tasmanian composer Don Kay. 

Mr Walker is to be discharged today from Royal Hobart Hospital, where he has
been a patient for a week. 

The four works were part of seven bronze portraits at his gallery. The
losses were irreplaceable, with two of the people no longer alive --
Serventy and Lloyd Rees. 

He recalled Rees had said of his portrait: "That's how I would like to be
remembered." 

Mr Walker said the sculpture portraits on plinths were a prominent feature
for visitors to his studio. 

He had done many sculptures, but probably only 10 or 12 sculpture portraits.
The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery had a version of the Lloyd Rees
portrait, but of the others he made only one. 

"It's a real blow for me because whoever stole them had to know the place
intimately. This is the exact opposite of opportunistic theft. 

"It's somebody who knew how to get them off, who has come to our house as a
guest -- that distresses me more than anything." 

These were all works which he decided to do himself, he knew each of the
people well, and was not commissioned to do them.

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