A life-size bronze statue of a legendary bare-breasted Maori young woman, known as Pania of the Reef and which has been a feature of the New Zealand city of Napier for 51 years, has been stolen, it was reported on Thursday.
Police said the statue, 1,5m high and weighing about 70kg, had been jimmied off its foundations on the Marine Parade of Napier during the night.
Napier is internationally famous as a model art deco city rebuilt after it was largely destroyed by an earthquake in 1931.
Maori legend says Pania was a member of the Sea People living on a reef off Napier who fell in love with a young chief called Karitoki, but was eventually compelled to return to her ocean home.
Tony Billing, of the Napier City Council, told Radio New Zealand locals are very angry about the theft.
”It is a well-loved piece of art and has strong ties to the local iwi [sub-tribe] and to Napier, and is basically an icon of the city,” he said.
Police suspect it could be a copy-cat theft after a valuable bronze sculpture by famous New Zealand sculptor Paul Dibble was stolen from outside a restaurant at Waikanae, north of Wellington, was returned on payment of a ransom recently.
Billing said the council will not pay a ransom for Pania, whose absence has ”left a big void in the landscape”. — Sapa-DPA