… by Rita Cipalla, from http://www.historylink.org/File/22556
On March 18, 2020, near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ornate, custom-designed bronze gates created by internationally renowned sculptor George Tsutakawa are stolen from the Washington Park Arboretum. The gates were commissioned in 1971 by the University of Washington and the Arboretum Foundation to honor those who supported the arboretum over the years. They were installed in 1976 at the north entrance to the park and later gifted to the City of Seattle. The theft is discovered on March 19, 2020, when the gardening team arrives for work in the morning. Within nine days, one of the gates will be recovered, largely intact; the other has been cut up for scrap and is beyond repair. Although Tsutakawa died in 1997, his family has the original design plans, and son Gerard, also a metal sculptor, will agree to fabricate a mate for the surviving gate. A free public celebration to mark the installation of the refabricated Tsutakawa Memorial Gates is held on September 14, 2022.
The Crime Unfolds…