500-kg Bronze Statue Stolen in Eastern Bulgaria

The bronze statue of Dimcho Kehaya, a 19th-century notable, has been stolen from an ethnographic museum house in the village of Zheravna in Eastern Bulgaria.

The news has been announced by Kalin Grigorov, a local donor who, together with his wife Penka, have provided the funds for the restoration of the 19th century house of Dimcho Kehaya in order to turn it into an ethnographic museum.

According to Grigorov, the theft must have been prepared really well as the bronze statue is enormous and weighs 500 kg; at the same time none of the neighbors heard anything the night of June 3 when it disappeared even though the statue was wrested out of its concrete base.

Dimcho Kehaya was one of the most famous notables in the Sliven Region in the 19th century. His house was built by the greatest craftsmen of Bulgarian Revival Period architecture from the towns of Koprivshtitsa and Plovdiv. The notable has a cafe in Zheravna that was famous in the whole region. He even inspired the Bulgarian writer Yordan Yovkov for one of his short stories.

Dimcho Kehaya's house and cafe have been restored exactly the way they were in 1850. The bronze statue of the notable was added several years ago. It was placed on the threshold of the house as if the host himself welcomed the visitors.

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