A bronze bust of Robert F. Kennedy that stood sentinel outside the main entrance of Washington's old football stadium for decades has vanished, and police do not yet know who took it or how. The statue's stone pedestal was left behind, empty, at the site where the bust had greeted fans at the ticket booth for generations.
An Events DC employee reported the bust missing to police, according to WTOP News. The report, filed October 1, says investigators had identified no suspects at the time and could not determine how the statue was removed. The bust is believed to have gone missing sometime between September 15 and October 1, and The Washington Post was first to report the apparent theft.
The sculpture was the work of Robert Berks, the American sculptor also responsible for the eight-foot, 3,000-pound bronze bust of John F. Kennedy at the Kennedy Center and the Albert Einstein Memorial, both in Washington, D.C., per the Post's reporting. Berks was known for a textured, clay-impression style he used across multiple presidential monuments, the same account notes.
A Monument That Outlasted the Stadium Itself
The bust and its pedestal were formally dedicated on June 7, 1969, not long after the venue — originally opened in 1961 as D.C. Stadium — was renamed to honor the former U.S. Attorney General following his 1968 assassination, the Post reported in 2020. Interior Secretary Stewart Udall led the federal push to rename the stadium for Kennedy, per that reporting. President John F. Kennedy had an even earlier tie to the site, having thrown the ceremonial first pitch at the stadium's inaugural Major League Baseball game in April 1962, according to the National Park Service. The venue hosted both the Washington Senators and the NFL's Washington franchise in its early years, the same agency notes.
In 2020, the RFK bust remained at the stadium. That June, Events DC removed a neighboring statue of Washington football founder George Preston Marshall over his history of enforcing racial segregation, placing it in storage while the RFK bust stayed put, the Post reported. Marshall was the last NFL owner to integrate his roster, doing so at RFK Stadium in 1962 under federal pressure, according to the same report.
One Man's Eight-Year Watch Over a Forgotten Garden
Capitol Hill resident Skip Strobel, 75, had quietly tended the bust and its surrounding garden by himself for eight years after finding the site abandoned and overgrown with weeds, the Post reported. Strobel last inspected the sculpture in person on September 15, 2026 — the same date police now cite as the start of the window in which it disappeared.
The theft happened as the RFK campus undergoes a massive transformation. Structural demolition of the nearly 65-year-old stadium was completed this year by contractor Smoot Construction, which diverted roughly 95 percent of demolition materials — including more than 81,000 tons of concrete reused on site and 8,000 tons of steel — away from landfills, according to Events DC. Teardown had begun in phases back in 2022 to clear the site for future development, the agency notes. Even as heavy equipment reshaped the surrounding grounds, the bust remained in a small, volunteer-maintained entry garden outside the construction security fencing.
Possible Felony Charges If Suspects Are Caught
Under District of Columbia law, stealing property valued at $1,000 or more constitutes First-Degree Theft, a felony carrying up to 10 years in prison and a $5,000 fine, according to Koehler Law. Theft of property under that threshold is instead charged as misdemeanor Second-Degree Theft, punishable by up to 180 days in jail, the firm notes.
Congress transferred control of the 174-acre stadium property to Washington, D.C. through a 99-year lease when it enacted the RFK Stadium Campus Revitalization Act in early 2025, replacing the shorter-term federal agreements that had governed the site since 1958, as Hoodline previously reported. Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. Council have since advanced a master plan for the 180-acre campus pairing a proposed $3.8 billion, 65,000-seat stadium for the Washington Commanders with up to 6,500 housing units and public parkland, mandating at least 30 percent affordable housing and 30 percent green space.
Part of a Wider Pattern of Bronze Thefts
The disappearance of the RFK bust fits into a broader nationwide pattern of scrap-metal theft targeting outdoor bronze statues, including the recent theft of a $100,000 bronze soldier sculpture in California and a 50-pound bronze bust of Olympic gymnast Suni Lee in Minnesota. The incidents leave open the question of whether the RFK theft was a targeted act against a historic monument or simply part of that wider opportunistic crime wave.
