|
|
 |
| |
The spot where the penguin statue once stood |
Uni rocked by mystery of who p-p-p-picked up their beloved penguin
Student pranksters suspected in theft of statue that vanished without so much as a squawk
LOST: Much-loved pet penguin. Doesn’t squawk much. Notably missing two little feet. Can you help?
The unexplained march of a penguin in Holborn – an unofficial mascot for the London School of Economics – has left studentsville in dismay.
After suddenly disappearing in the early hours of Sunday morning from its spot outside a student bookshop in Portugal Street, all that remains of the aluminium penguin sculpture is a pair of tiny, severed flippers.
One of 12 animal sculptures donated to the university three years ago, it was a big favourite on campus. No student leaves LSE with any credibility unless they have posed for a photograph with the penguin at least once, usually at the end of night out in the nearby union nightclub.
Upset at the loss, students organised a vigil for the lost bird on Tuesday and some even stretched to dipping into their loans and buying bunches of flowers to lay at the scene.
“We all loved that penguin. I can’t believe he is gone,” said LSE student Emma Peart.
The statue was the gift of public art philanthropist Louis Odette, who studied at the university in the 1940s. Far more valuable than the usual traffic cone bounty of student thieves, the bandits who swiped it may not have realised it cost $10,000 Canadian dollars to produce.
“I think taking the penguin is really uncool as it defaces our university and is really immature,” said Anna Starasts, another student.
Whispered theories on “who” and “how” were audible throughout Tuesday’s vigil, but one rumour refuses to die. “The general consensus is that it was done by someone from King’s College,” said LSE student Andrew Wright. Yet the widely accepted law of student pranks clearly states that stolen objects should suddenly reappear in awkward places – on top of a church tower or in the provost’s office.
And so far: no sign, not even a comedy ransom note.
Sculptor Yolanda vanderGaast has seen it all before. The only other penguin sculpture she made was swiped from a park in Windsor, Canada, in 2001.
“I guess it’s flattering if people like it so much they want to take it home,” she told a Canadian newspaper this week. She has offered to make another.
Camden police said they were not investigating the theft but the university is checking CCTV.
Several students have vowed to take up the case, with the customary Facebook group already created. |
 |
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
