The son of a Canadian soldier who helped liberate Groningen in 1945 is looking for the rightful owner of three bronze statues his father took as war booty.

“I’m ashamed to say it but after the liberation of Groningen, my father stole three statues and shipped them to Canada in his military duffel bag,” Brooke Webber told local broadcaster RTV Noord. The statues remained in the living room of his parental home for 80 years, he said.

Now that his father has died, the son wants to find the owners of the statues and return them to them.

With the help of war historian Joël Stoppels, Webber has reconstructed his father’s story. Webber Snr spent most of the war in Europe and trained in Great Britain in 1944. He was then part of a unit that was deployed near Oldenburg in Germany and which eventually liberated Groningen.

Several tips have already come in but none leading so far the the rightful owners, Stoppels told Dutch News. “We are looking for people who may know more about their origin. Does anyone miss them, or is there a story about them circulating in the family?”

Even if the search is unsuccessful, Webber is not taking the statues back to Canada. “He wants rid. They are burning a hole in his suitcase. He wants to return the statues to Groningen,” Stoppels said. Webber is coming to Groningen with the statues at the end of September.