Missing ‘Hermes’ found at the bar

The 90-year-old bronze statue “Resting Hermes,” pried by thieves from its marble pedestal outside the University Club on San Francisco’s Nob Hill last week, is home again.

Acting on a tip from an informant who left a voice mail message for Deke Kastner, the club’s general manager and chief operating officer, the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department found the more than 300-pound statue Saturday at Toot’s tavern in Crockett, northeast of San Francisco.

“It was seated in a chair just outside the ladies’ restroom of the bar,” Kastner said. The tavern’s owner had purchased it from two men for $475 and had a receipt proving the sale.

“Resting Hermes,” which had been stolen from the club once before, in 1974, will remain under lock and key until “extraordinary security measures” are put in place, Kastner said.