A dragon sculpture that went missing from a Nanaimo, B.C., park is shown in a handout photo. Artist Heather Wall says she believes someone would have planned carefully to take the 35 kilogram, 1.5 metre wide aluminum dragon from its three-metre perch. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Heather Wall
A large aluminum dragon sculpture that went missing from its perch in a Nanaimo park has been found.
Heather Wall, the artist who created the dragon, said it turned up in a library parking lot wrapped in brightly-coloured blankets on Friday afternoon.
Rock Dragon 2.0 was installed atop a rock and steel sphere mounted on a two-metre pole in the waterfront park in early June and Wall said it would have required a co-ordinated effort to get it down.
She estimated the value at between $12,000 and $15,000 and said it had been leased by the City of Nanaimo for one year.
Nanaimo RCMP spokesoman Const. Gary O'Brien said the sculpture did not appear to be damaged.
It's one of several pieces of art that have been reported stolen on central Vancouver Island in recent weeks, including a 300-pound Chinese terracotta statue that went missing from a Lantzville yard on Tuesday.
