Really ‘Bazaar’

[Erik Sine]

Really ‘Bazaar’

By Carl Kozlowski

Authorities are investigating the theft of a 900-pound, 150-year-old zinc sign that was stolen from a Pasadena art dealer.

Buffalo Latham, an artist who was preparing to display the sign at a show opening next week at Mediterraneo Home & Gallery at 979 E. Colorado Blvd. said the sign, valued at $45,000, was placed in the parking lot behind the shop on Friday. He had been restoring the sign’s neon lights throughout Monday, but upon arriving to continue work Tuesday afternoon, he found the giant artifact — whose most prominent feature was the word “Bazaar” in large lettering — missing.

Latham said that security cameras from the neighboring Ice House revealed the sign was still there at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, but a glitch in the surveillance recording required further analysis to determine when and how the sign was taken. Latham filed a police report Tuesday.

“It was 18 feet long, two feet wide and 10 inches thick,” said Latham, who was hoping the sign would be the centerpiece of a show spotlighting art and writings that he created during his recently completed three-year trip on foot across the United States.

“It took four men to help me remove the sign when I saved it from being abandoned in San Francisco two months ago,” he said.

[B.O.P.]

A 150 year old sign with neon? Not unless it was added at a much later time.