Residents Eyeball Mask Stolen

BY Alex HudsonPublished May 25, 2015

A few years back, avant-garde greats the Residents released a box set valued at an incredible $100,000. Now that same hefty price tag has been placed on one of the band's signature "Eyeball with Hat" masks, which has been stolen.

The theft was reported to the police by Homer Flynn, a co-manager and longtime collaborator of the band. The item — which is one of the group's original masks — had been on loan to museums as part of a travelling exhibit called Spectacle: The Music Video. Its final stop was the Experience Music Project museum in Seattle, and it was delivered back to San Francisco by FedEx last month.

Unfortunately, Flynn wasn't at home to receive the package. It seems that an unknown person fraudulently signed for the package, and it has since gone missing in its shipping case.

That's a picture of the mask, which is dubbed "Mr. Blue Original," above. It was stolen along with the original photo of the band in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. That photograph was valued by Flynn at $20,000.

The San Francisco police department has issued a statement requesting information about the stolen item.

"My best guess is that FedEx left it on the landing of my building and someone took it. I seriously doubt that they knew what was in the shipping box," Flynn told NBC Bay Area. "At this point FedEx still claims to have made the delivery which was signed for, but the signature is 'B Ham.' There's no one with that name in my building and subsequent emails have indicated that no one was here when FedEx claims to have made the delivery."

He described the items as "completely irreplaceable." This apparently isn't the first time one of the Residents' masks has gone missing. "Mr. Red" was stolen in Los Angeles 30 years ago and was eventually returned.

Latest Coverage