Lincoln's Tomb Gets Sword Back
Chicago sculptor reconstructs broken blade
Sunday, May 13, 2012 | Updated 11:16 AM CDT
Someone climbed atop Lincoln's Tomb and stole a copper sword from the statue of a Civil War officer.
A sword stolen from a statue depicting Civil War soldiers atop Abraham Lincoln's tomb has been replaced.
Chicago sculptor Marshall Svendsen used broken pieces of the recovered sword to make silicone molds for the reconstruction.
A teenager who climbed atop the statue of an artillery battle group in October stole the sword. That sword was itself a copper replica of the original bronze one, which was stolen in 1890.
The State Journal-Register of Springfield reports that Svendsen volunteered to make a replacement, which he reattached Friday at the tomb in the Illinois state capital.
Most of the raw material for the statue came from Civil War cannons that were melted down.
