Officials in Salzburg, Austria, reported on Wednesday that more than 200 gold-colored statuettes of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have vanished from his hometown. The theft has significantly impacted an anniversary tribute marking the composer's 270th birthday, leaving the commemorative display considerably more sparse than intended.
The Mozarteum Foundation had originally unveiled 320 of the polymer figures on July 15. Each statuette, designed by German conceptual artist Ottmar Hörl, measured less than 50 centimeters in height and featured the famous composer accompanied by his dog. Within the first two weeks of the exhibition, more than 80 of these figures had disappeared. By Wednesday, the total number of missing items had reached 210.
Artist Ottmar Hörl expressed his frustration regarding the incident, telling the German news agency dpa, “The worst thing for an artist is when his work dissolves.” Hörl dismissed the possibility that casual visitors were responsible, suggesting instead that the losses were the result of “organized theft.” He noted that he had planned to sell the statues for approximately 100 euros ($114) each once the exhibition concluded, meaning the perpetrators would not have gained significant wealth from the act.
The installation was spread across several areas, including the garden of Mozart’s former residence, his living quarters, and various pavilions. While organizers had set aside a limited number of spare statuettes to account for potential losses, the actual number of missing items far exceeded their contingency plans. The situation was further complicated by the fact that the manufacturer was on holiday, preventing a swift replacement of the stolen pieces.
The exhibition is scheduled to remain open until August 30, though it now features a much wider spacing between the remaining figures. This is not the first time Hörl has faced such issues; he noted that a complete set of Richard Wagner statues was stolen within 10 days during a previous installation in Bayreuth, Germany. Describing the realities of his work, Hörl remarked, “That’s just the nature of public space. That means when you work as an artist in a public space, you mustn’t complain about what is happening there. It ranges from destruction to theft. That’s just how it is.”
Hörl emphasized that his intention with the project was to move away from traditional monuments. “I didn’t want to do a monument of Mozart. There are already enough of these. But I wanted to show his human side, that he was a normal human being despite his genius,” he told The Associated Press. To achieve this, he included Mozart's favorite dog, Pimperl, to reflect the long walks the composer and his family frequently took in the nearby Mirabell Garden.
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