Where in the world is the Showalter fish?

One fish from the Showalter Fountain is missing, and no lead is currently in sight.

A complaint that the fish went missing was made to the IU Police Department at 6:18 p.m. Aug. 1, IUPD Lt. Craig Munroe said. The report estimated that the fish was stolen sometime between 6 a.m. July 31 and the time of the complaint.

Officer Dan Leeuwen of the IUPD wrote in the report that there was a beer can near the fountain and that the ground around it was wet. In the fountain, he observed a pole where the fish had been attached.

“It appeared that some of the other fish had been moved and tampered with,” Munroe said. “I don’t know how difficult it is to get one off, but they usually (turn up).”

The stolen fish, with an estimated worth of $10,000, was added to the fountain in August 2009, said Sherry Rouse, curator of campus art for the IU Office of Risk Management.

The fish is the smallest of the fish that surround the Venus sculpture in the middle.

“The whole entire sculpture was preserved, and part of that renovation was to have a new fish installed,” she said. “It’s smaller because when Robert Laurent made the sculpture, he didn’t want the fish in the front to cover Venus.”
Rouse said she was heading out of town for vacation when a member of the IUPD informed her of the theft.

“Usually when the fish are stolen, they lug them around, then they get heavy and leave them,” she said. “A lot of times these things happen as pranks, but usually they happen because of some reason. And in the middle of the summer, it’s kind of unusual.”

Rouse said one fish was stolen during the 1987 NCAA championships. When former IU men’s basketball coach Bobby Knight was fired, a couple more were lost, she said.

“For one person to pick it up is very difficult,” Rouse said. “It was probably more than one person. Generally we get them back. I would be willing to say if someone turns it in, we’ll look the other way and be happy to accept it.”