Authorities search for John Sutter statue stolen from El Dorado County cemetery
EL DORADO COUNTY – El Dorado County sheriff deputies are on the hunt for a stolen John Sutter statue and whoever took off with it.
The statue has an infamous history, it was vandalized and removed from a Sacramento street just five years ago.
Photos show the base and the bolts left behind where a now stolen 8-foot-tall bronze John Sutter statue once stood in an El Dorado County cemetery.
It is not the first time the statue has been on the move. In 2020 this same Sutter statue came down and was legally removed from its longtime location in midtown Sacramento, where it stood at the front of Sutter General Hospital, across from Sutter's Fort.
"It was built in Europe and sent over here," California historian Steve Beck said at the time.
It came down at as many U.S. monuments were being removed in a reckoning of systemic U.S. racism.
California State Parks Department is now reassessing Sutter for his use of what they describe as exploited labor.
"It's important to remember that the values people had in the middle of the 19th century are very different from the values we have in the 21st century," Beck said.
Days before Sutter's statue was removed, it was vandalized with red paint. At the time, Sutter Hospital took it down, they said it would be put in storage and returned to its donors.
Now a new twist in the statue's story after being relocated to El Dorado County.
The Native Sons of the Golden West are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible for the theft.
