CHEYENNE — A collision at a busy downtown intersection caused a truck to crash into a $95,000 bronze sculpture and nearly take out another large bronze worth $165,000 Thursday.
Nobody was hurt when a pickup was forced into the front yard of Deselms Fine Art on the corner of East 17 Street and House Avenue at about 11:30 a.m., said Harvey Deselms, who runs his popular fine art gallery out of the house.
He told Cowboy State Daily the day started as normal as any other, “then I heard a crash and a screech, then a thump and a crash.
“I thought, ‘That’s not good.’”
What he heard was the tail end of a crash between two trucks at the intersection that sent one of them over the curb, into a stop sign, then spin into a large bronze sculpture titled “Sunriser.”
It’s an original sculpture by an artist named Bobbie Carlyle and is listed for sale at $95,000, Deselms said.
“I didn’t see it, just heard it, but it looks like a westbound truck hit (the other truck), and I think he kind of got T-boned, then probably panicked and went to slam on the breaks and hit the gas,” Deselms said. “He spun around, took out the old stop sign.
“The he ended up knocking the bronze off and stopped just short of hitting another bronze. It was crazy, and we were all trying to figure it out.”
He said the sculpture that was hit came withing a few inches of crashing into a large bronze bear worth $165,000.
The crash appears to be the result of the driver of a Ford F-150 stopped at the stop sign on the corner failing to yield and pulling in front of a GMC Sierra, said Alexandra Farkas, spokesperson for the Cheyenne Police Department.
The impact spun the Ford around, into the stop sign, a flood light in the yard and the sculpture.
The 80-year-old driver of the Ford was ticketed for a stop sign violation, she said, adding no drugs or alcohol are suspected to have contributed to the crash.
Harvey Deselms points to fractures in a sculpture title "Sunriser," which was hit by a truck Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (Greg Johnson, Cowboy State Daily) 
A $95,000 sculpture titled "Sunriser" was knocked over by a truck in the yard of Deselms Fine Arts in Cheyenne on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (Courtesy Harvey Deselms) 
A $95,000 sculpture titled "Sunriser" was knocked over by a truck in the yard of Deselms Fine Arts in Cheyenne on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (Courtesy Harvey Deselms) 
A $95,000 sculpture titled "Sunriser" was knocked over by a truck in the yard of Deselms Fine Arts in Cheyenne on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (Courtesy Harvey Deselms) 
The sculpture knocked over by a truck Jan. 16, 2025, was quickly placed back on its pedestal, but it will have to go back to a foundry to be repaired. (Greg Johnson, Cowboy State Daily) 
The sculpture knocked over by a truck Jan. 16, 2025, was quickly placed back on its pedestal, but it will have to go back to a foundry to be repaired. (Greg Johnson, Cowboy State Daily)
Was Just An Accident
Deselms said he’s not upset or angry over the crash, and is glad nobody was hurt, although the older driver of the truck that hit the sculpture seemed a little frazzled.
He said when he was in an accident years ago, a police officer told him something he’s never forgotten.
“He said, ‘It’s called an accident, not an on-purpose,’” Deselms said. “So that’s what I told the guy. Nobody was hurt. … The important thing is it can be fixed and nobody was hurt.”
The sculpture — which features a slender woman dancing on a ball, leaning off to the side with her arms turning into a circle of feathered wings — was damaged. It suffered a fracture near the base that will require a return to the foundry to fix.
“It’s a beautiful sculpture, and we’re lucky the foundry is right here (close),” Deselms said.
The front yard of the gallery, which is a converted historic home, is filled with sculptures, and Thursday’s incident hasn’t swayed Deselms from filling it with sculptures.
The crash seems more of a fluke than a legitimate danger to happen over and over again.
“There have been crashes in the intersection before, because that’s what happens at intersections,” he said. “But nothing has ever entered my yard before.
“It was a pretty exciting morning.”
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
