Chrysler Museum ends decades-long dispute by returning marble masterpiece

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – A decades-long dispute over a marble masterpiece ends in goodbye for Norfolk.

The FBI has put to rest the debate over the rightful owner of “The Wounded Indian” statue.

Now, the Chrysler Museum of Art is returning it to its rightful home in Boston.

Walking down the hallway of the gallery, you can see The Wounded Indian catching the light above. It catches your eyes.

But soon, The Wounded Indian will be gone – because of how it got here in the first place.

The Wounded Indian sculpture is amazing, sculptured art, handcrafted from Vermont marble in 1850 by Peter Stephenson.

A wounded Indian inspires sympathy for the ill-fated warrior.

Virginia Beach resident Madeline Rossettini is torn on whether the arrow in his hand is from a rival tribe or the white man.

“There is a sadness there because we really don’t understand the Indian nation. We aren’t taught enough to understand the Indian nation,” Rossettini said.

FBI Boston tells us The Wounded Indian had been on display for more than 50 years in the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association’s Mechanics Hall (MCMA) in Boston.

In 1958, MCMA sold off the Mechanics Hall.

“During the move the MCMA were advised that The Wounded Indian had been accidentally destroyed and thrown away. In reality, the sculpture had not been destroyed. Sometime after 1958, the sculpture ended up with a private collector in New York,” the FBI Boston said.

“The piece went through a controversial time, and out of good faith we need to honor these types of claims,” said local art curator Gayle Paul with the Portsmouth Art and Cultural Center.

Turns out, that private collector apparently did not have the right to donate the work because he did not own it, and, according to the FBI, The Chrysler Museum agreed last Wednesday to return The Wounded Indian to its rightful owner, to be placed in the Mechanics Hall Convention Center in Boston.

The Chrysler Museum’s Board of Trustees, on August 9, authorized Erik Neil, the Macon and Joan Brock director of the Chrysler Museum of Art, to sign an agreement with the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association to return the sculpture by Peter Stephenson, The Wounded Indian, to MCMA.

“The Chrysler is pleased with the amicable resolution, and we wish the best for the MCMA,” said Dr. Erik Neil, the Macon and Joan Brock director of the Chrysler Museum of Art, in a statement.

In return, the MCMA praised the Chrysler Museum Board for “wisdom and collaboration in reaching an amicable resolution of this matter.”