> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.urgentmatter.press/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # A bronze faun stolen from a French zoo in 1993 turns up at a U.S. auction house - URL: https://www.urgentmatter.press/a-bronze-faun-stolen-from-a-french-zoo-in-1993-turns-up-at-a-u-s-auction-house/ - Published: 2026-09-22T04:58:11.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-22T04:58:11.000Z - Description: The sculpture, owned by the French state, is back at the Musée de Picardie after its American owner gave it up without payment. - Author: Adam Schrader - Tags: Law and Crime, #public-access A 136-kilogram bronze faun that vanished from a French zoo in 1993 resurfaced at a U.S. auction house more than three decades later after a provenance check flagged it as stolen and led to its return to France, the Art Loss Register said. Alfred Lepère’s *Faune chasseur dans l’allégresse*, or *Hunting Faun*, is back on display at the Musée de Picardie in Amiens, where it was first installed in 1864\. It arrived on September 3, the museum and the register said. The sculpture depicts a naked, bearded faun holding a dead rabbit. It stands more than two meters tall and weighs about 300 pounds. The work is owned by the French state and listed in the national collection managed by the Centre National des Arts Plastiques, the London-based Art Loss Register said in a press release. The state commissioned the work in 1863, and it was cast the following year. It stood at the Musée de Picardie before being moved to the Amiens zoological gardens in the early 1950s. The bronze disappeared from the zoo overnight in summer 1993\. French police circulated a theft notice that year through the OCBC, the national unit that fights trafficking in cultural goods, the register said. It reappeared in July 2025 when an auction house preparing a sale in Chicago asked the register to check the sculpture’s provenance, the [Musée de Picardie](https://france3-regions.franceinfo.fr/hauts-de-france/somme/amiens/volee-il-y-a-trente-ans-a-amiens-cette-sculpture-monumentale-a-ete-retrouvee-l-an-dernier-aux-etats-unis-et-restituee-au-musee-de-picardie-3416933.html?ref=urgentmatter.press) said. The register identified it in its database, and the sale did not go forward, [Smithsonian magazine](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mysteriously-stolen-more-than-30-years-ago-and-illicitly-transported-to-the-us-this-300-pound-sculpture-is-finally-back-home-in-france-180989507/?ref=urgentmatter.press) reported. ## Sign up for Urgent Matter This article is provided free with the support of paying subscribers. Not ready for a paid subscription? Sign up for a free account today. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. The Art Loss Register said it then represented the French state and the Centre National des Arts Plastiques in negotiating the work’s return. The American owner, who has not been publicly identified, agreed to relinquish the sculpture without compensation, the museum and French outlets reported. “The recovery of this remarkable sculpture demonstrates why thorough due diligence is so important within the art market, where a stolen work can disappear for decades into private hands,” said Charlotte Chambers-Farah, the register’s business development and client manager, in a statement reported by [ARTnews](https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/faun-sculpture-stolen-french-zoo-returned-1234798172/?ref=urgentmatter.press). Chambers-Farah announced the recovery days after [two Renoir paintings were stolen](https://www.urgentmatter.press/thieves-steal-four-renoir-paintings-from-cagnes-sur-mer-museum-two-still-missing/) from the Musée Renoir in Cagnes-sur-Mer. “At a time when thefts in public institutions are once again targeting items for their material value, this recovery offers grounds for hope that their disappearance over a prolonged period does not necessarily mean that they have been melted down for scrap,” she said. The Art Loss Register is a for-profit company that sells provenance searches to auction houses, dealers, insurers and law enforcement. It is not clear how the sculpture left France or entered the United States, who held it during the 32 years it was missing, or whether anyone faces charges. The museum said the circumstances of the theft were never determined. The museum said the Paris foundry Thiébaut Frères cast the bronze and that its pose draws on the ‘Dancing Satyr’ unearthed at Pompeii in 1830\. Lepère exhibited a plaster model at the 1863 Salon before the bronze was presented the following year. The sculpture returned to public view for the Journées Européennes du Patrimoine, the annual European Heritage Days, on September 19 and 20\. The museum said it is installed in the courtyard of its contemporary wing. *Urgent Matter is reader-supported. Please* [*consider subscribing*](https://www.urgentmatter.press/outsourced-art-institute-of-chicago-custodians-face-short-paychecks-and-lost-benefits/#/portal) *to support independent arts journalism.*