In the West Seattle studio filled with his remarkable creations, Sabah Al-Dhaher showed us a sculpture called Beginning.
In the bronze sculpture, a hand holds a baby boy.
"It's the most personal piece I've ever done," Al-Dhaher said.
The hand is his.
The boy in the hand is his son, born three and a half months premature.
"I could literally fit him in my hand," Al-Dharer said.
Al-Dhaher showed us the fourth bronze copy of Beginning.
The others are on display in Puyallup, Longview, and, until a few days ago, the Des Moines Marina.
Someone stole the sculpture right off a pedestal.
"Needless to say, I was kind of heartbroken," Al-Dhaher said.
The sculpture, on loan in Des Moines for a couple of years, was discovered missing Sunday.
"It's hard to know that after all the work I've done for it, and it’s been enjoyed by different cities, especially Des Moines, that somebody stole it."
Sabah Al-Dhaher teaches at Pratt Fine Arts Center.
In 1993, he came to Seattle as a political refugee from his native Iraq, where he joined a failed uprising against Saddam Hussein's regime.
His son depicted in the work has now grown up.
"He's 23 now and severely disabled from being born that early," Al-Dhaher said.
Al-Dhaher wants his sculpture returned, and hopes it isn't destroyed for the raw materials.
"That's the hard part of it, just being cut into pieces," he said.
Anyone with information about the theft, from an area along the boardwalk near the office of the Des Moines Marina, is urged to contact Des Moines Police at 206-878-3301 or file a tip online here.
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