Usually, when car crime happens, it involves a vehicle either getting pinched or used in a crime. Well, this case is a little different. A life-sized statue of F1 driver Gilles Villeneuve was stolen from out front of his memorial museum earlier this week, and both the museum and the town of Berthierville, Quebec are asking for the public’s help in finding it before it’s too late.
In case you aren’t hugely familiar with Gilles Villeneuve, he was a Quebecois Formula 1 driver, but that’s about where the similarities with Lance Stroll stop. Villeneuve became an inspiration for his defensive racecraft, particularly his battle with René Arnoux at the 1979 French Grand Prix. He was signed to Ferrari by Enzo himself, developed a reputation for being absolutely tenacious, and finished second in the 1979 driver’s championship. When the BBC asked Niki Lauda to describe Villeneuve, Lauda said, “He was the craziest devil I ever came across in F1.”
Tragically, Villeneuve died during the final qualifying session of the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix when he attempted to occupy the same space as Jochen Mass, who was travelling substantially slower in his March car and actively moving off the racing line to let Villeneuve through. Mass went right, Villeneuve went right, and that was that. While Villeneuve’s racing career was cut short at the young age of 32, he remains an inspiration throughout the Great White North.
As such, stealing a statue of Gilles Villeneuve in Canada is a bit like stealing a statue of Dale Earnhardt in America — you just don’t do that. However, someone did. At some point between Oct. 30 and 31, the statue was cut at the ankles and hauled away from in front of the Musée Gilles Villeneuve. The museum quickly took to Facebook to ask for the public’s help in locating the statue, because at this point, there’s no guarantee it’ll be returned safely.
So, what would someone do with a life-sized statue of Gilles Villeneuve, minus his feet? Well, the statue is made of bronze, and as CityNews reports, the museum fears it could be “melted down” and possibly sold as scrap. Desperate times can make people do brazen things, and considering bronze is a more desirable metal than steel or iron, it’s possible that someone saw the statue as a payday.
Of course, there’s also the possibility that someone just wanted it, but why? How would you hide a life-sized statue of Gilles Villeneuve? How would you prop it up considering it no longer has feet?
Obviously, this is an egregious act, and it’s angered more than just racing fans and museum staff. The municipality in which the museum is located stated that “The City of Berthierville wishes to denounce this criminal act (which) not only damages our heritage, but also deprives our community and motorsports fans of a strong symbol of our history.”
If you happen to know the whereabouts of the statue, please contact Musée Gilles-Villeneuve. Let’s get this bronze back to where it belongs, because it’s a monument to history.
(Photo credits: Musée Gilles-Villeneuve)
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This thing is cut and melted by now. Alas.
There has not been a metal statue made in the Balkans for the last 25 years at least. Or almost.
Manhole covers there are now mostly composite, and roadsigns are made of some plastic too. A need discovered the hard way.
Forgive me, but when I saw the feet left behind I thought of Henry Blake from M*A*S*H. “But to cut off a man’s legs, and steal his drawers!”
From what I recall, he wasn’t that tall…
The exact same thing happened to a statue of Jackie Robinson in Wichita, KS earlier this year. Perps were quickly apprehended but not before much the statue had been cut up for melt down…
Unscrupulous is the word that comes to mind. A 12 000$ reward is being offered to encourage the thieves not to melt it. A local dealership and another store are even offering their location as a drop-off spot. We can only hope it will returned.
One of my biggest regrets, if we can call it that, is to have been born in 85 and not having had the chance to witness the earlier decade of F1 and the Habs’ dynasty years…
It’s very much worth the while checking out full races/extended highlights/season recaps from that period on youtube. I was born in 82 so I also didn’t get to watch races from this period live, but almost every crazy overtake, impossible save, etc from the late 70s onwards is well documented in video. Uploaders do tend to edit out fatal accidents because of youtube demonetizing the videos, which I’m ok with, I really don’t need to watch fatal accidents – I was watching Imola 94 live.
To make out with it, obviously. Not that I’d know.
Cutting it off at the ankles would be extremely funny if it was a statue of Johnny Herbert.
That is a low blow, Adrian. A very low blow.
About 5 inches off the ground, in fact.
Oh come, come. I could have gone much lower.
Unfortunately, anyone who cares wouldn’t have done this in the first place. It’s a scrap target for sure. I hope RCMP catches them and is able to return the statue.
Just a technicality, but it wouldn’t be the RCMP for this type of investigation in Quebec, as they have their own provincial police force (the SQ)
Well, if its transported to a scrapyard across provincial lines, then maybe
Well I knew it would not be the OPP officers portrayed by Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney. They never caught anybody!
This sounds like the antics of the fraternity pledges from the rival racing museum across town.
Meth enthusiasts trading in scrap metal, they’ll sell it for $20
And some unscrupulous scrapper will gladly pay out with no questions. Fuck them both.
Unscrupulous scrapyards are behind so many of society’s problems, from the destruction of historic buildings in Detroit beyond the point of economic repair, to art theft, to the catalytic converter theft epidemic
I saw some blokes steal Nigel Mansell from a wax museum, maybe start with them.
He is still cross about that, he was just having a rest.