Oskar Hansen’s Iconic Wings II Statue Found in Richmond
This article is the second in a two-part story about the lost Wings II sculpture. You can read the first part of the story here.
Almost two years ago, I wrote about my years-long search to find Oskar J. W. Hansen's most famous missing sculpture, the lost silver twin to his 8-foot-tall golden Wings statue, which has been on display in the Rand Tower of downtown Minneapolis since 1929.
Wings II "Missing" Since 1985
The missing silver version of Wings—which, for distinction, I've taken to calling Wings II—was last on display at Richmond, Virginia's Byrd Airport in 1985, when it was put in storage during an airport renovation project. As I wrote about in my original article, the statue briefly resurfaced in 2011 when its anonymous new owner shared photos of the sculpture with an art blogger, showing Wings II in his living room.
Wings II in a Richmond-area living room in 2011. (Courtesy of Chris Miller’s This Old Palette blog).
I concluded my January 2024 article under the assumption that it might still be in the anonymous collector's Richmond-area living room, and I hoped that someone in Richmond might be able to help me track it down.
I sent my article to several Richmond journalists and posted it to Virginia art collector groups on Facebook.
A few months later, in June 2024, the Richmond Style Weekly mentioned my story in their annual Best of Richmond edition, citing it as the "Best Richmond Art Mystery" of the year.
Despite the publicity, a full year after becoming Richmond's best art mystery, I had no additional leads.
Around that time, I started planning a trip to Virginia to finally visit Oskar's Yorktown Victory Monument and his busts of Orville and Wilbur Wright at the Wright Brothers Memorial at Kitty Hawk. Since the trip would bring me near Richmond, I decided to try one last time to revive my hunt for Oskar's missing Wings II.
I sent a message to Don Harrison, the author of the Style Weekly article from a year earlier, to see if he had heard anything. I knew it was a long shot, but having succeeded with a similar search last year for Oskar's missing Head of Christ, I held out hope that maybe Don had heard of some new leads for me. He said he hadn't, but thought of a couple of people he could reach out to to ask around.
On July 3rd, Don messaged me: "Aaron, I may have found it."
Wings II Found in Richmond Living Room
Don's Richmond art world connections led to Tracy Bernabo, an art appraiser, who remembered her husband Russell doing some restoration work on Wings II many years earlier. Tracy, in turn, reached out to the sculpture's owners and connected them with Don and me. The mystery was solved.
In my original post from two years ago, I speculated that the owner of Wings II, who was in a position to acquire it in 1984—over 40 years ago—must now be in their 80s or 90s. My speculation had only been partially correct.
In fact, the 1984 anonymous donor who had responded to the airport's "Save Our Wings" campaign was Alfred Jenkins, who was in his 80s at the time. It was Alfred Jenkins who'd arranged to put the statue in storage during the airport renovation. When the renovation was complete, he refused to return the statue to the airport because of concerns that the airport's new proposed location for the statue was both less secure and less prominent than Alfred thought it deserved. So Wings II remained in storage for a decade and was still in a crate when Alfred died in 1995; his collection was then inherited by his son, Todd Jenkins.
Soon after, Todd and his wife, Holly-Faye, decided to display it in their home in Richmond. A few years later, they moved out of the city and moved Wings II to their new living room. It was Todd who'd emailed the blogger the living room photo back in 2011.
After corresponding with the Jenkins' by phone and email, we arranged for me to visit them and their sculpture during my Virginia trip.
My Visit with Wings II
In August, I flew to Richmond to meet the Jenkinses and see Wings II in person. Don Harrison, the Richmond journalist covering the story, joined me. Todd and Holly-Faye were gracious hosts. Their home was full of antiques, artwork, and collectibles from their life together and inherited from Todd's ancestors.
And right in their front window—just as it had been in the photos from 2011—stood the enormous silver statue, towering over 8 feet high.
Todd & Holly-Faye Jenkins with their Wings II sculpture. (Photo courtesy of Scott Elmquist for Style Weekly).
It was a magic moment for me to stand in front of it after almost five years of searching and sleuthing. Like its gold twin in Minneapolis, it's a beautiful sculpture with long wings extending from the figure's arms. With its sculpted aviator cap and nude body, it appears as though a mix of angel, airplane, and airplane pilot all collapsed into one. It's an iconic motif in Oskar's work, and it's easy to see how it could be at home in an airport, on a rooftop, in a museum, or in this case, in a home.
The four of us sat in the Jenkins living room for a couple of hours reviewing the extensive files Todd has maintained over the years about Oskar, the sculpture, and the convoluted story of how his father came to own it. Todd and Holly-Faye are great stewards of this important piece, and I'm glad to now know where it has been living all these years.
Don wrote a great follow-up story for Style Weekly after our visit, and I’m grateful his help in solving another Oskar Hansen mystery.
