A sculpture by Turner-prize winning artist Grayson Perry was stolen from Hidden Gallery in Clifton on August 30. Alien Baby is a 27cm glazed ceramic figure and was taken between the hours of 1.15pm and 1.26pm.
Two men were seen in the area just prior to its theft. Avon and Somerset Police describe one of these men as white, in his thirties, of slim build, with dark facial hair. He was wearing a camouflage-pattern baseball cap, a dark zip-up jacket, with a blue V-neck shirt underneath, as well as dark joggers and white trainers.
Alien Baby is one of 12 sculptures the artist made for a four-episode, BAFTA-nominated series Rites of Passage in 2018. In the third episode, Grayson visited the Neonatal Unit at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford. There the artist spoke with mothers who had given birth to premature babies and to the nurses working with them.
Grayson created 12 ‘Alien Babies’ to celebrate the NHS, technology and the humanity of the neonatal nurses. The artist then gifted each of these unique works to the nurses and couples featured in the show.
This No. 2-stamped Alien Baby was given to a couple whose twins were born at 29 weeks. They had spent three months in the Special Care Baby Unit. The sculpture weighs approximately 2 pounds, the same as many premature babies.
Grayson Perry is one of the UK’s most celebrated artists, with an eight-month exhibition at the Bristol Museum, Grayson’s Art Club, only recently ending this September.