(CNN) An historical plaque marking the site of a slave auction went missing in Charlottesville, Virginia, and police are offering an award of up to $1,000.

The Charlottesville Police Department was notified around 9 a.m. Thursday that the plaque had disappeared, according to a city press release.

The plaque, memorializing one of several slave auction blocks around the Court Square area, had been located on the street, surrounded by bricks, and near a building labeled "Number Nothing." That structure was built as a mercantile store in the 1820s, according to the city.

A stone block that once sat outside the building's southwest corner was used for auctioning both goods and people until slavery was abolished near the end of the Civil War.

"Slave Auction Block," the missing plaque reads in large letters. Beneath that, it says, "On this site slaves were bought and sold."

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