“Lincoln is a local treasure for us,” said Chief Larry Regnier of the Kankakee police, whose department is investigating the theft. So far, Chief Regnier said, promising leads have been hard to come by.

Museum officials had thought that the theft might have been a prank, and that the plaster study would resurface in a few days. The police hoped someone might provide information about the theft after seeing a Facebook post by the department, which included photographs and described the hand as roughly “the size of a 8-10 pound ham.” The local newspaper, The Daily Journal, published an editorial pleading for the thief to come forward.

“We are blessed to have such a fine museum with an impressive inventory,” the editorial said, “but the collection is not complete without Lincoln’s hands.”

The hand was the work of George Grey Barnard, a sculptor who spent part of his boyhood in Kankakee around the time that Lincoln was assassinated, and whose admiration of Lincoln was a recurring theme in his art. The sculpture was displayed along with other renderings of Lincoln in a wing of the county historical museum built specifically to showcase Mr. Barnard’s work.

Image The study of Lincoln's hand, which was displayed in a wing of the museum built to showcase Mr. Barnard’s work. Credit... Kankakee County Museum

Connie Licon, the museum’s executive director, said the hand sculpture had been on display since at least 1991. This was the first art theft she said she could remember in more than 20 years at the museum.