Sculpture linked to Candace Derksen trial stolen from Winnipeg gallery
A piece of artwork created by the father of murdered Winnipeg teen Candace Derksen has been stolen.
Cliff Derksen says the sculpture, called Dancing David, was discovered missing Tuesday from a show at Frame Art Warehouse in the Exchange District.
"I just didn't believe it. I blinked my eyes a few times and wondered if I was seeing right," he said.
"You know, art is personal and people honour personal stuff like this. For somebody to just seemingly walking out with a piece of artwork is really unusual and surprising."
Derksen said the work expresses the range of emotions he and his wife Wilma went through during the murder trial in 2011.
"When we went to the trial, we went through all the emotions. We were sometimes really down, sometimes disappointed, sometimes discouraged, sometimes angry," he said.
"But there was a basic piece that we had and a basic joy, still, that reigned, I guess, in our lives. He [Dancing David] was something that expressed that feeling, a basic groundwork from which we operated."
Mark Edward Grant was found guilty in 2011 of second degree murder in the 1984 death of 13-year-old Candace.
Grant repeatedly denied killing the teen and appealed that decision to the Manitoba Court of Appeal. In 2013, that court agreed the original trial judge did not consider some evidence that could have cast doubt on Grant's guilt and ordered a new trial.
The Crown then appealed that decision to the Supreme Court but lost. In a unanimous 7-0 decision released last month, the country's highest court upheld the appeal court ruling for a new trial for Grant.
No date has been set.