# Talk:Alma Mater (New York sculpture)

Columbia does not have "three backup copies" of Alma Mater -- or even one, which is all it would need in any event.  When I was a student there in the mid-1980s someone stole the end of Alma Mater's scepter, and Columbia did not have a copy of even that part of the statue to install as a replacement.  The stolen piece was returned and reinstalled more securely.  The university may have made a cast of it just in case it gets stolen again, but there is no way it could have made a cast of the entire sculture without people seeing them do it.