A small Quebec town northeast of Montreal is racing to find a stolen bronze statue of revered Formula One driver Gilles Villeneuve, as locals fear it will get melted down for cash.
Each year, tourists and racing enthusiasts travel to Berthierville, Que., a town of fewer than 5,000 people, to visit the Gilles Villeneuve Museum—located on a street also named after the famous driver—and pose for a photo with the five-foot-three-inch tall statue that stood atop a podium.
But now the podium is empty, except for a pair of bronze feet.
“There was nothing left but Gilles’ bronze boots cut at the ankles,” Alain Bellehumeur, general manager of the Gilles Villeneuve Museum, said in an interview Friday….