A stolen bronze sculpture of Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg has finally returned home after 26 years missing. The head disappeared during a February night in 1999 from outside the House of Emigrants in Växjö, southern Sweden.
Police had no leads at the time. The case remained cold for more than two decades.
Then in August, Björn Arfvidsson received an unexpected phone call. Arfvidsson leads collections at Växjö's Cultural Heritage Center. A mysterious male caller told him, "I have something you might be interested in."
Arfvidsson immediately drove to his workplace. There he found the missing bronze head waiting in a plastic shopping bag. Local media first broke the story of the recovery.
Why someone stole the sculpture and where it spent 26 years remains unknown. Museum staff note the heavy dust in the statue's ear suggests indoor storage.
That might explain why the artwork remains in such good condition today.
The original theft prompted museum officials to install a replica in the early 2000s. The institution now owns both the recovered original and the replacement copy.
The anonymous return raises questions about why thieves took nearly three decades to return the cultural artifact. Such delayed returns of stolen art remain rare in Sweden's museum world.