Wednesday, October 20, 2004
CLEVELAND (AP) -- A statue of Helen Keller, the deaf and blind woman who became a role model for millions, has been recovered six years after it was stolen from a talking garden for the blind.
Police said the 150-pound bronze statue depicting Keller as a child was found in the home of a Cleveland Heights art collector.
Detective Gail Maxwell said the statue was recovered Oct. 10 after an artist reported seeing it in the home of William Hahn, 54, who said he didn't know the statue was stolen. He provided police with a receipt from a now-defunct antique shop.
The statue, created in 1965 by the late I. Alan Sheere and valued at $7,000, was stolen April 25, 1998. It shows Keller with her hands outstretched groping for the world, with her head back and mouth open.
An attorney for Hahn, Michael Goldberg, said Hahn purchased the statue for the equivalent of $1,200 in cash and a train set. Hahn was embarrassed he didn't know more about the statue, Goldberg said.
Hahn said Tuesday that he would leave all comment to his attorney. "He never attempted to hide it or sell it. It was sitting in his home," Goldberg said Tuesday.
Keller, who lived from 1880 to 1968, learned to communicate by finger-on-hand spelling under the tutelage of Anne Sullivan, graduated from Radcliffe and became a noted author and lecturer. Sullivan was the title character of the 1962 film "The Miracle Worker."