Disturbing the peace: robbers are plundering graveyards

Insight on the News, Jan 21, 2003

The epidemic of theft of artifacts from cemetery lots continues. Thieves mainly are interested in ornamental ironwork, such as fences and gates, that fetch high prices in the antiques market when sold as "architectural artifacts," "garden ornaments" or "folk art." But it seems that everything one might find in a graveyard is "up for grabs" these days. Missing items include statues, urns, columns, flag holders, benches, birdbaths, plaques and even headstones.

The issue heated up after a cartel of antiques dealers specializing in ornamental ironwork purloined from cemeteries was busted in New Orleans in the 1990s. Reports now are routine from all quarters of the country. Here is a sampling:

* Angel statues are being plucked from grave sites at an alarming rate due to their trendiness. Experts say a grave-yard angel often can be distinguished from those produced as garden ornaments because the statues placed by mourners usually have a downcast or forlorn countenance.

* An old zinc statue of "Shep" a long-ago family pet who guarded the family grave site, brought $20,000 from a Connecticut dealer who expected to sell it for $50,000.

* In Texas, gates and urns are bringing $1,500 and more, authorities say. The trend there is to top gravestones with Plexiglas for use as coffee tables.

* A classified ad in the Maine Antique Digest begs for the return of an angel statue "stolen from my daughter's grave in July 1998."

* In New York City, a prominent dealer and author was sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay $220,000 restitution for his part in the theft of a Tiffany stained-glass window from a Queens mausoleum. In another case, a New York City millionaire recently was charged with stealing capstones--as many as 300, each weighing as much as 400 pounds--to build a patio for his summer home.

There are ways to come by cemetery ornaments legitimately. Churches or associations sometimes sell statuary and other items from abandoned graves, and items sometimes are sold when a site must be moved. It also is possible to mistake some Victorian-era decorative items for cemetery ornaments due to the taste for solemn and mournful images in that era.

Why are cemeteries easy pickings for thieves? Blame modern life. Rural cemeteries often are neglected, and urban cemeteries have become favored hangouts for drag dealers and other miscreants. Family graves that might have been well-tended in the old days when people stayed in one place now are forgotten.

Those concerned about the desecration of cemeteries are urged to get to know local protective ordinances and to push for enforcement. History commissions and other concerned groups can be encouraged to inventory sites and report missing items. Photos can be very helpful in seeking the return of stolen items. Community Watch and programs such as permitting dogs to be walked in cemeteries are other preventive measures.

The International Cemetery and Funeral Association notes a neat idea: cemeteries as wildlife sanctuaries, an innovation encouraged by the Audubon Society. The trend is catching on, with more and more people choosing to be buried inconspicuously among gardens, nature trails, butterfly ponds, bird-houses and other parklike sur-roundings.

Here's an interesting note regarding thefts: Sometimes the perpetrators aren't human. A chilling thought, until you learn the facts behind the disappearance of numerous small flags that marked veterans' graves in a cemetery. A bit of surveillance by maintenance workers revealed that squirrels were stealing the flags to pad their nests.