Troy

The bounty for the safe return of the fiberglass head removed from a diversity-themed Uncle Sam statue — one of 30 that make up a public art installation throughout downtown — grew to at least $425 Sunday.

The damage to Uncle Rainbow — a multicolored likeness of the top-hatted American icon anchored on Fourth Street between Broadway and State Street — was discovered early Saturday morning.

Patrol officers found the statue beheaded around 3:40 a.m., but police have no leads on the culprit or culprits, Capt. John Cooney said.

Former Mayor Harry Tutunjian and his wife, Francesca, the owner Francesca's Cafe on Broadway, are offering $100. Jeff Buell, the owner of Sequence Development and operator of the city's marina, has kicked in another $200. Contributions also flowed in from elsewhere in the community.

"We both work to make downtown a great place, and a lot of people take pride in the Uncle Sams," Tutunjian said. "(Francesca) gets customers from people who come down and look at them all."

The Tutunjians offered a similar reward in May when vandals spray-painted three buildings and a World War II monument near four of the statues, which were themselves unharmed.

One statue on Broadway — The Annotated Uncle Sam — was also beheaded in June after vandals knocked it top hat over teakettle. A 22-year-old Watervliet man was charged with criminal mischief after police caught him fleeing the scene in the wee hours of June 2.

Tutunjian urged business owners to check their security cameras to see whether they captured the most recent vandal or vandals in action.

"I actually have cameras at our place, so I'll look," Tutunjian said. "Maybe there's somebody walking by with a head in their hand."

The Annotated Uncle Sam is scheduled to be reinstalled Monday, said Elizabeth Young, executive director of the Downtown Troy Business Improvement District, which is one of the installation's sponsors.

Uncle Rainbow has been taken to BID headquarters pending repairs, "which we're jokingly calling the Uncle Sam ICU," Young said, adding that the statue had been particularly popular with children. "It's heartbreaking to think that it might not be put back up again."

Uncle Rainbow was designed by artist Christopher Harvey, who about the statue wrote that "we should remember that in community as in nature, diversity is an indicator of vitality, and that we are ultimately responsible for our own experiences."

The Collar City has long prided itself as the birthplace of Uncle Sam — the creation, the story goes, of Samuel "Uncle Sam" Wilson, a 19th-century brick maker and meatpacker who supplied beef to the Army during the War of 1812. That claim, however, has been challenged over the years.

On Twitter, Buell wryly offered to up his reward significantly if the culprit is willing to subject him or herself to public ridicule.

"An extra $1,000 if he gives himself up and allows rotten tomatoes to be thrown at him on Troy Night Out," Buell wrote.

In an interview, Buell said the Uncle Sam statues have been a boon for downtown by appealing to all generations.

"There's a community ownership of the entire project," he said, "and (the vandalism) shouldn't be stood for."

jcarleo-evangelist@timesunion.com • 518-454-5445 • @JCEvangelist_TU