Goethe bust stolen from Highland Park
In life, the German literary giant Johann Wolfgang von Goethe had a reputation for keeping his head.
“Do not give in too much to feelings,” he once said. “An overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.”
In death, however, he seems to have lost his head.
An imposing bronze bust of Goethe (pronounced GUR-tuh) that overlooked the Highland Bowl in Rochester for 65 years has been stolen, believed to have been chiseled from its granite pedestal within the last 48 hours.
Word of the theft spread on social media Thursday, and pebbles of mortar that once affixed the likeness in place were all that sat atop the base that reads: “Goethe 1749-1832.”
Monroe County Parks Director Larry Staub said a member of the Highland Park Neighborhood Association reported the theft early Thursday.
“It’s unbelievable to me that people would be so brazen and have such disrespect for public art, for the community in general, to pull off such a vicious stunt,” Staub said. “It just made me sick when I went over there today.”
The bust was partially concealed by shrubbery, but it could plainly be seen from the road on South Avenue.
Monroe County is asking anyone with information on the theft to contact the Sheriff’s Office by calling 911.
The bust was unveiled on Sept. 17, 1950, and was said at the time to be one of the only monuments of its kind this side of the Atlantic. It was commissioned by German-American citizens of Rochester to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Goethe’s birth.
According to a chronicle of that day written by Elmer G. Suhr, an associate professor of classics at the University of Rochester, the work was sculpted by William Ehrich, a native of Germany who taught art at the university.
“The portrait in question presents to us the Goethe of mature years, when, after a life enriched with a wealth of experience as a man and an author, he had reached the height of his powers,” Suhr wrote.
“This is the Goethe we see on the commanding summit of a hill in Rochester’s Highland Park,” Suhr concluded.
Goethe is considered one of the leading figures in Western literature. He wrote poems, novels, plays and scientific works.
Perhaps his most famous work was Faust, a tragic play that Goethe developed over 58 years about a man who pledges his soul to the devil in exchange for all knowledge and experience.
If only Faust were here to reveal who stole his creator’s head.
DANDREATTA@Gannett.com