The Goddess of Grapes

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The Goddess of Grapes in Sioux City, Iowa was sculpted by Deb Zeller and purchased by Sculpt Siouxland in 2010.^[1] Sculpt Siouxland is a private nonprofit organization that was developed by staff from the Sioux City Growth Organization to help preserve their ongoing mission to make downtown Sioux City more engaging with art.^[2] The Goddess of Grapes was later installed as part of the permanent collection outside on Fourth Street. It is a representation of the goddess Ariadne, wife of Dionysus.

The statue was displayed until September 22, 2015, when an employee noticed that it had been stolen from its spot while doing a routine check of their outside collections pieces.^[1] On September 28, 2015, the statue was found outside of the Sioux City Art Center on a bench where it was brought inside to check for damages.^[3] After the Goddess of Grapes statue was cleared of damages, it was then put back in its original place on Fourth Street a month later.^[4] Two years later, the statue was stolen again from the same spot in late June 2017.^[5] In April 2019, the Goddess of Grapes statue was found and returned after nearly two years and in a different town, Waterloo, Iowa.^[6] The statue was first found in a garage by a homeless woman, Shelly Reichert, while visiting a friend in Des Moines, Iowa around December 2018.^[7] Later confirming the authenticity of the statue, Reichert contacted the curator of the Sioux City Art Center, Todd Behrens, to inform him of where the statue was and to schedule a retrieval of the statue.^[8] The object would be picked up from the Grout Museum in Waterloo, Iowa from Nick Erickson who is the Registrar there.^[9][10] The statue was then checked for damages, and will be off display until repairs can be completed. Once repairs are done, the statue will be placed in a more secure location that still has not been determined.^[11]

Deb Zeller is an artist who primarily works out of Hopkins, Minnesota. She has her own studio as well as part owner of Parley Lake Winery, a vineyard. She is the founder of Bronze Buddies, a bronze consortium.^[12][13]