Overview
- The couple found the carved limestone face while grading their Russian Hill yard in May, and the slab measures about 2 feet wide, 9 inches thick and weighs roughly 150 pounds.
- Owner and artist Judy Gittelsohn and several local sculptors say the workmanship is high quality and note Art Deco features such as a flattened nose and broad face that evoke Ralph Stackpole’s circle.
- No institution or scholar has authenticated the sculpture and experts caution that attribution is difficult without a signature, provenance documents or archival records.
- The owners do not plan to sell the piece and are keeping it as a garden focal point while they contact specialized committees, museums and university scholars to investigate provenance.
- Ralph Stackpole taught for decades at the school now known as the San Francisco Art Institute and left public work across the city, but curators say San Francisco frequently yields orphaned objects whose makers cannot be definitively identified.