Rep. Monique Davis, Student Damian Wolak Immersed In Statue Scandals

It is apparently stolen statue week in Chicago. First, there was the hoopla over State Rep. Monique Davis keeping a 400-pound bronze statue of an African slave in her office rather than where it belonged at Chicago State University, and now officials at the University of Illinois at Chicago are wondering how a bust of Abraham Lincoln ended up at a frat party.

Last fall, UIC undergraduate student government president Damian Wolak apparently used student money to buy the bust--claiming it would be donated to the school's renovated Lincoln Hall, which didn't happen the Chicago Sun-Times reports:

But only after buying it did Wolak learn he needed to submit a formal proposal to get the bust "placed'' on campus, he said in an interview this week.

The bust ended up at a frat party, and when pictures of Honest Abe sporting a Beta Kappa Zeta shirt, jacket and bag showed up on Facebook, some began questioning Wolak's judgment, the Sun-Times reports.

Wolak, who didn't attend the party, says the fiberglass bust wasn't damaged during the bash. Still, he said "the brotherhood does recognize it was irresponsible.''

The campus newspaper, the Chicago Flame -- which first wrote about the bust's plight -- said that the incident "raises questions about Wolak's judgment and responsibility as a leader.''

Still no word on whether the $355 bust will be used in Lincoln Hall.

In other statue news, Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed reports that Rep. Davis is blaming her boyfriend for the statue scandal--and is now promising to return it to Chicago State University.

Read the whole story of the Honest Abe bust here, and the latest on the slave statue here.