Thieves steal bronze flowers from favorite Wichita picnic spot in Riverside Park

The greens of daffodils are starting to show around Wichita, but the scene at the pond at Park Villa — a favorite Riverside Park picnic spot at 10th and Bitting — is not quite as idyllic.

The five bronze flower fountains that have graced the pond since 2003 have been stolen.

When the act happened is not clear. According to one person’s photo of the pond on social media, the flowers have been missing since at least November.

The pond has been out of commission for some time, so it hasn’t attracted as much attention as it normally would. Someone eventually noticed, though, and now police are looking into it.

The city confirms the fountains are not dismantled for repair.

Wichita artist Tina Murano, who lives in Riverside, had the vision for the flowers, but she said a lot of people were involved in the effort, including the city employees and WDM Architects, among others.

“It’s sad,” she said of the loss. “I love that building and that pond.”

She said she and others did a lot of research into the land, the park and Park Villa, a 1913 building overlooking the pond.

Park Villa is known for its creator, Laura Ford Buckwalter. The Wichita resident had the idea for the shelter, raised money for it and then oversaw its construction while sitting in a rocking chair, rifle ready on her lap, keeping an eye on area prisoners who built the Spanish-mission-style building.

The flowers were a small part of a $5.5 million master plan for the park that took three years to implement in the early 2000s.

Murano worked on a number of art installations there, but she especially liked the flowers.

“One of my favorite parts of the project was to see them in the wintertime,” she said of how they iced over.

Murano initially built the flowers from clay, and then the Crucible Foundry in Norman, Okla., cast them in bronze and made adjustments for how the water would flow through the petals.

“So it was really a team effort,” Murano said.

She said she’s not certain whether the foundry would still have the casts for the flowers, but someone is looking into it, she said.

If the casts don’t exist anymore, Murano said she’s open to working with the city again to redesign the flowers.

“Riverside holds a special place in my heart, and so does Park Villa.”