1 week Ago By Michelle
Jacques Villeneuve has called out the “shameless, soulless beings” that stole a bronze statue of his late father Gilles Villeneuve from the museum bearing his name in Quebec. The statue of Gilles Villeneuve was sculptured as a tribute to the six-time Grand Prix winner, who tragically lost his life in 1982 in a crash during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. The life-sized statue was stolen from out front of the memorial museum two weeks ago, thieves shearing it off at the ankles.
The Musée Gilles Villeneuve has taken to social media to request the public’s help, offering a $12,000 for the recovery of the statue. The museum fears the statue could be melted down for the bronze. “There s no question!” read the post.
“The important thing is to bring Gilles back to his museum!” Jacques Villeneuve, the son of Gilles, has blasted the thieves. “My dad’s bronze monument was stolen at the museum. Those shameless, soulless beings do not deserve to be called humans,” he wrote on Instagram.
👉 Villeneuve Pironi: An unrelenting tragedy through the eyes of their families 👉 The good, the bad, the ugly: Gilles Villeneuve Villeneuve opened up to CanadaCasino.ca about his thoughts on the theft and the “idiots” who stole it. “Why would someone do that? I just don’t get it.
It is not like gold or diamonds which you can steal and hide and then sell. It defies belief,” he said. “It’s quite a big heavy piece and would take a lot of effort to cut it down and you’d need a big truck to take it.
“No one noticed, which I found even crazier. How do you not notice somebody doing that? And what do you do with it? It is missing its feet. You can’t sell it because if you tried to, people would immediately realise they were the idiots who took it.
“If you melted it down, it would not be worth much. Bronze is not that valuable. So, it is pointless.
.. financially, with the amount it took to take it, it doesn’t make sense.
” Gilles Villeneuve lost his life when he suffered a fatal neck fracture in a crash during qualifying at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder when he collided with Jochen Mass. The two made contact when Villeneuve, on a fast lap, clipped Mass’ car and was launched into the air. His Ferrari hit the ground some 100 metres later and broke apart as it somersaulted along the edge of the track.
Villeneuve was thrown from the wreckage. Transported by helicopter to the University St Raphael Hospital, he was pronounced dead later that night. Read next: Lewis Hamilton Ferrari replacement already found with ‘ready-made’ F1 star?.
