Thanks to everyone for your caring responses and passing on the info concerning the theft.
I'm posting the newest press release:
For Immediate Release
DATE: February 12, 2020
CONTACT: Kathy McCabe, Executive Director, 253-353-7356 or 206.409.0429,
kathy@pacificbonsaimuseum.org
FEDERAL WAY, WA—Pacific Bonsai Museum is pleased to report that the two bonsai stolen from our secure, public exhibition space on Sunday, February 9, have both been mysteriously returned to the Museum.
Security guards discovered the pair of bonsai sitting on the road leading to the Museum at approximately 11 pm, Tuesday, February 11. They alerted Museum staff, who responded to the scene along with Federal Way police.
Museum Curator Aarin Packard has examined the trees and has declared them in fairly good shape. “The Silverberry suffered some damage. It has some broken branches, probably due to improper transportation and handling, but both bonsai trees and their pots appear to be intact, which means they can return to being on public display.”
The bonsai will be further examined this morning and placed back on public display by 12:00 noon today. The Japanese Black Pine, originally grown from seed by Japanese American Juzaburo Furuzawa while he was incarcerated during WWII, will resume its position as the centerpiece of Pacific Bonsai Museum’s upcoming special exhibition,
World War Bonsai: Remembrance & Resilience, opening May 8, 2020.
“We are deeply grateful for the tremendous outpouring of support from the community and from the media who raised awareness of the bonsai’s disappearance,” said Pacific Bonsai Museum Executive Director Kathy McCabe, who previously promised “no questions asked” if the bonsai were returned. No details are known about who returned the bonsai or why the thieves took them.
The Pacific Bonsai Museum, located in Woodbridge Corporate Park (formerly the Weyerhaeuser Company Campus) in Federal Way, WA, is one of the top bonsai collections in the world. Established by the Weyerhaeuser Company in 1989, the Museum is now a nonprofit organization connecting people to nature through the living art of bonsai.