The Council for the Preservation and Development of the UCV (Copred) denounced on Tuesday the theft of the sculpture of María Lionza, created by Alejandro Colina, which was protected in the University City.
In a communiqué published on its social networks, Copred explained that last month its technicians and maintenance personnel detected that there were outsiders doing formwork work on the statue.
They immediately requested information in this regard from the Institute of Cultural Heritage, which depends on the national government, which indicated that the Institute of Materials and Structural Models of the Faculty of Engineering (IMME) had issued a damage report, for which it was proceeding to cover the statue to protect it.
Copred then contacted the IMME to verify the origin of the report and its veracity. As of today, the alleged report is believed to be false. “The identity or status of the signer of the document has not been verified at our university, and it was also never sent to Copred. It was only known when Copred demanded explanations,” says the institution’s statement.
The council recalled that in 2011, 2013 and 2015 the UCV issued statements requesting the immediate relocation of the original sculpture on the Francisco Fajardo highway. “Originally the statue, conceived as a cauldron for the Bolivarian Games of 1951, was located between the two stadiums belonging to the university, in the area where the Simón Bolívar Bicentennial Square is located, commonly called ‘Stadium Square’.
“It has always been in the highest interest of the UCV to grant permits and contribute to the transfer of the statue of María Lionza to the site where it was located when it collapsed in July 2004, namely, the central island of the Francisco Fajardo highway, today called Cacique Guaicaipuro”, added Copred.
The statement concludes by highlighting that the UCV does not know the fate of the sculpture, which belongs to the university, and warned that “it will activate the necessary mechanisms to determine the responsibilities of the case and expect the cooperation of the competent agencies.”