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MCI Project Summaries 2008 - Smithsonian Institution

MCI Project Summaries 2008 - Smithsonian Institution

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National Park Service<br />

<strong>MCI</strong> 6227 Sherman Monument Sword and Statue<br />

<strong>MCI</strong> Staff: R. Jeff Speakman, Carol A. Grissom, Colby Phillips<br />

A bronze sword confiscated from an auction by the FBI was being considered by the<br />

National Park Service as one having been stolen in the early 1950s from the life-size bronze<br />

statue of Artillery located on the northeast corner of the General William<br />

Tecumseh Sherman Monument in President’s Park in Washington, D.C. Examination of the<br />

sword on site indicated that it is too short for the statue. In addition, the pebbly,<br />

unweathered and mostly “as cast” surface of the sword, in contrast to the weathered but highly<br />

finished surface of a similar sword on the monument’s Cavalry, also suggests that it is not the<br />

lost sword. X-ray fluorescence analyses were conducted to determine if the alloy composition of<br />

the sword is consistent with that of Artillery and other elements of the monument. The<br />

composition of the confiscated sword is not consistent with the composition of the statues<br />

proper, but it is not very different from that of Cavalry’s sword, which is believed to be original.<br />

Hence, XRF results are inconclusive.<br />

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