The Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) is on the lookout for a life-sized papier-mache statue of a dairy cow that went missing from the Granoff Music Center lobby last week.
Granoff Events and Public Relations Manager Jeffrey Rawitsch said the bovine installment went missing on Sept. 18 sometime after 6 p.m. and has not been seen since.
"We've had a couple of leads with the police, and they've been very cooperative and very helpful and really taking it seriously," Rawitsch said.
The cow was placed in the Granoff lobby after fulfilling its role as a prop for a ritual during the World Damba Festival on Sept. 15, according to Rawitsch. The statue was on loan from a Vermont artist that provided it to Tufts free of cost.
"In terms of materials, [its worth is] very minimal. It's a papier-mache cow, so it's mostly newspaper and paint and whatever they used to prop it up," he said.
More important than the monetary cost is the creative value of the cow, Rawitsch said.
"It takes a long time to fabricate
and that's more the issue," he said. "It's not a sort of missing item that you can just give some money to the person and they can just replace it."
Rawitsch said the Department of Music has posted about the cow on its Facebook page and on TuftsLife, put up flyers around campus and asked various Tufts-related Twitter users to send out messages about the missing statue.
In addition, TUPD Deputy Chief Mark Keith said TUPD has alerted the Department of Facilities, UGLUnicco, The Office of Residential Life and Learning and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs about the missing cow.
"We're just trying to get the information out there so anyone who sees the cow or knows anything about its whereabouts can get in touch," Keith said.
