Mysterious boardwalk bust is identified

THE MYSTERIOUS clay bust found on the Ventnor boardwalk is of a dentist from Wilmington.

Though some said the 20-pound sculpture found on the boardwalk last year looked like Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne, Luca Brasi from "The Godfather" or comedian Tim Allen, Betsy Schwartz says it's her "Pop Pop," Samuel Shames.

"He definitely was the patriarch of our family," Schwartz, a Wilmington native who lives in Connecticut, told the Daily News on Wednesday.

Police in Ventnor found the sculpture on the boardwalk near Lafayette Avenue in November and assumed it had been stolen and discarded.

The wooden pedestal at the base of the bust had "Hilda 72" inscribed in it. Schwartz said that was her grandmother, Hilda Shames, a prolific artist who sculpted busts of many family members.

Though Ventnor sent out fliers, canvassed houses and shared the Shames bust on social media, no one could identify it. Schwartz said her family saw the bust on television and recognized it. She believes it was simply left behind mistakenly when her family sold a house near the boardwalk.

"I don't believe it was stolen," she said. "I think it got lost in the move."

Schwartz said her family is in the process of recovering the bust, but she found it appropriate that her grandfather, who died decades ago, was still in a place he loved so much.

She said her grandparents, who lived in Wilmington, were married in nearby Atlantic City and vacationed there every summer. The family later bought a place in Ventnor.

"It was a nice little thing that he was looking out by the boardwalk," she said.

Ventnor police did not immediately return a request for comment.

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