CANORA — Amelia Erhardt famously and mysteriously disappeared in 1937, now her statue in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland has suffered a similar fate.
Designed by former Canora resident Lorne Rostotski, MPA, Cr. Photog., who now lives in Harbour Grace, the brass statue stands seven feet tall, weighs 695 pounds and disappeared on April 24. A reward of $25,000 has been offered for its return.
“We thought it was a joke at first, who takes such a big statue?” said Rostotski. “A few days earlier, someone had taken the brass plaques that go with the statue.”
Sculpted by Bulgaria native Luben Boykov, who now lives in Sicily, the Amelia Erhardt statue took almost two years to complete.
Rostotski said police acted quickly after the theft, immediately blocking the two nearby ferry entrances.
“They notified any possible buyers or with the capacity to melt metal” said Rostotski. “Of the $25,000 reward, $10,000 is from a local metal purchaser.”
A security camera from a gas station located about half a block away from where the statue stood shows two individuals dropped off at midnight on the night in question, and a vehicle picked them up at around 2:30 a.m. Unfortunately the camera is about half a block from the park, too far away to identify anyone.
Rostotski, who is a long-time Canora Courier subscriber and likes to keep up with what’s happening in the area, is an internationally awarded master photographer. He still has relatives in the Canora area; Dr. Ivan Rostotski is a chiropractor serving Canora and area, and Evan Rostotski teaches at Norquay School and plays the outfield for the Canora Supers, winners of four of the last five Â鶹ÊÓƵeast Senior Baseball League championships.
Together with his wife, Jill, and daughter, Sara, Lorne operates Rostotski Studio and Gallery.
A Newfoundlander by choice, Rostotski attended Ormside, a one-room schoolhouse until the age of four, then moved to Canora where he continued to develop his artistic talents winning several provincial, national and international art awards as well as painting signs and drawing editorial cartoons for his hometown newspaper.
In 1966 he began working as a professional photographer based out of Ontario and travelled across Canada eleven months each year. In 1972 he stablished his first studio in Gander before Moving to St. John's four years later.
In the mid-seventies Joseph R. Smallwood, Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, saw Lorne's photography and commissioned him to take scenic photographs throughout the Island for Volumes 5 & 6 of the Books of Newfoundland. They become friends and Lorne subsequently worked on three more of Joey's books.
Rostotski is responsible for the concept and design of the "Silent Witnesses Memorial" in Gander, commemorating the Arrow Air I USA 101st Airborne crash that killed 256 people; the largest air disaster in Canadian history.
On June 14, 1919 Alcoa and Brown made their historic 'First Non-Stop Trans-Atlantic Flight' in the Vickers Vimy. This gigantic open-cockpit biplane took off directly through the field on which Rostotski's home and studio once stood. Because of this interest Lorne gladly accepted the Vimy's invitation to become artistically and photographically involved in the Vimy Atlantic Project', the 2005 flight re-enactment.
Rostotski also worked on the 'Amelia Earhart Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Committee'. He has designed the park's focal-point; including the statue, its plaque and the knoll on which it stands. He has also designed the 'Amelia Earhart commomorative Coin' featuring Amelia's profile and her 'Lockheed Vega' aircraft, as well as 'several art pieces commemorating her historic First Woman Pilot to Fly Solo Ads the Atlantic Ocean' from Harbour Grace.
Rostotski has travelled throughout Canada, USA, Mexico and Europe as a national speaker, lecturer and storyteller.
Since the theft of the Amelia Erhardt statue, numerous anonymous tips have come in to both the RCMP and the Harbour Grace town council. According to those tips, the statue is in the U.S. somewhere, broken up into six pieces, but could be repaired to look as though nothing happened. Apparently, the thieves haven’t tried to sell it because it’s “too hot” right now, since it’s been all over the news.
Harbour Grace Mayor Don Coombs encourages the thieves to “Just leave it by the side of the road somewhere and let us know where it is,” so it can be repaired and returned to its home.
The theft has apparently had a significant impact on the community, as area residents have been bringing flowers and placing them where the statue previously stood.
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