An elderly man from Drenthe offered the Bell Foundry Museum in Heiligerlee a special ‘gift’. A bell stolen from the cemetery in Boven Pekela in 2012. The man had the clock in the garden for years and wanted to get rid of it.
“We have promised the man that we will respect his privacy and will not say anything about his age or place of residence. The only thing I want to say is that it is an elderly man,” says curator Joost van Linge.
The bell, weighing approximately 50 kilos, was removed from the bell tower at the public cemetery in Boven Pekela in February 2012. The theft was never explained. The bronze bell from 1951 belongs to the municipality of Pekela and was used during Remembrance Day.
Fishing spot
Van Linge: “As we were told, the man found the clock four years ago in a bush next to his regular fishing spot. He thought it was a special thing.” The clock was given a nice spot in his garden and was visible to everyone. “That’s why we don’t think he is the thief,” says the curator.
“Because he wanted to get rid of it, maybe he wanted to live smaller, he started searching on the internet and that’s how he ended up with us. We are located in the former factory building of the Van Bergen bell-founder family. This is a Van Bergen from 1951, made here in Heiligerlee. That is clearly readable.”
Battered
The clock is quite battered. “The thief probably threw him in the clap. He probably didn’t dare take it to a metal dealer. It is clearly visible that the clock was in the water for a long time. And you can see that it has been forcibly sawn out of its crankshaft.”
Formally, the clock is still the property of the municipality of Pekela. According to Van Linge, he is willing to loan the clock to the museum.
“We are of course very pleased with that. Even though it is actually a very ordinary example, the value of the clock is of course in the story. And that is now partly known,” says the curator. He would like to have it complete and asks for help from people who may know something. “Who took the clock out of the water and left it there? How does he end up in the bushes? Let us know.”