Mediterranean Garden Project, was stolen sometime Friday evening or early Saturday morning.

It was missing for more than 60 years before its re-dedication to San Diego State University. Now, after only nine days in its new location, the 87-year-old sundial that was a gift from the senior class of 1911, is missing again.

The historic sundial was stolen sometime between Friday evening and Saturday morning, SDSU police said.

Pat Abbott, a professor of geology who worked to bring the sundial back, is hoping that it was just a prank and will be returned.

“It has a high historic value, but not a high cash value,” Abbott said.

The sundial, which was located next to Life Sciences and behind the Faculty Staff Centre, highlighted the Mediterranean Garden project, an effort by SDSU faculty and staff members to create botanical gardens on campus.

The dedication ceremony less than two weeks ago recognized the effort put forth by Howard O. Welty, an alumnus of the class of 1911, who found the sundial and worked to restore it.

In 1931 the sundial was lost when the San Diego Normal School was moved to the current location of SDSU. Welty found the sundial broken in a basement. He restored it and passed it along to his son, who donated the instrument to the Special Collections Department at SDSU in 1990.

“You can’t put money on historic value ? (it’s not) like we can just go back to the senior class of 1911 and ask for another one,” Abbott said.

Abbott said the sundial was drilled into its pedestal and secured with metal screws and an epoxy resin. The screw heads were destroyed to make removing it difficult, he said.

“We thought, naively, that that would be enough,” Abbott said.

University Police Officer Chris Tennant said there were chip marks on the rock pedestal from whatever the thieves used to pry it out. As with most cases of theft, suspects are hard to pursue if there are no witnesses, he said.

Abbott and Mike Simpson, a biology professor who also worked on the project, agreed that their best hope of getting the sundial back is if the thief returns it.

“The significance is much more important than the dollar value,” Simpson said. “The person who took it probably thought it was made of gold because it had just been polished and cleaned.”

Abbott and Simpson also agreed that the university has no intention of prosecuting whoever took the instrument, as long as it is returned.

“We’re not interested in vindication or anything like that,” Abbott said. “We just want it back.”

Anyone who has any information on the missing sundial is encouraged to contact University Police at 594-1991. Abbott is asking the thief to return the sundial to any department on campus, the library, lost and found in Aztec Center, or The Daily Aztec in Business Administration and Mathematics, Room 2.

The sundial is about a foot long with a gold base and Roman numerals circling the center. The vertical element that reflects the shadow is a reddish gold color.

“Made by the senior class of 1911” and “J. Jessop and Sons Jewelers” are inscribed on top of the dial.

Another Latin inscription reads, “lux me regit et lux est umbra Dei,” which translates in English to “Light rules me and light is the shadow of God.”

Daily Aztec assistant city editor Jeff Mundy contributed to this report.