Mozart tribute ends on sour note after mass figurine theft

Over 200 gold-colored Mozart figurines have been stolen from a public art installation in Salzburg, leading to the premature ending of part of the exhibition marking the 270th anniversary of the composer's birth. The thieves targeted the figures, which were installed in Salzburg's Mirabell Garden and at other Mozart-related sites across Austria's fourth-largest city.

The Mozarteum Foundation reported that 210 out of the 320 figures were missing, forcing organizers to cut short the display. Though some replacement figures were kept, the theft's scale made it impossible to recover the full collection. The manufacturer is currently on summer break, making it difficult to replace the missing pieces.

Several dozen figures remain on display at the Mozarteum and Mozart's birthplace until the end of August. The figures, created by German conceptual artist Ottmar Hörl, depicted the composer with his dog Pimperl, aiming to portray Mozart as an ordinary human being rather than a monument. Hörl, known for installations featuring large numbers of identical figures, expressed shock at the organized theft, suggesting it might have occurred at night after the garden closed.

He hinted that the thieves likely took the 50-centimeter figures, which cost around €90 each, resulting in a potential loss of approximately €20,000. A similar incident occurred during a previous Hörl exhibition in Bayreuth, where 100 Richard Wagner figures vanished. Hörl acknowledged that public spaces often face destruction or theft, but emphasized that artists should not complain about such occurrences while working in these environments.