Did you ever get a response? This post was a result of our IM converstation. I forgot what led to this discovery of the stego statues. I think i was just doing an ebay search for "life-size statues".

We were talking about how it's so cool that the Oak Lawn, Illinois library would allow people to borrow statues. You would often borrow statues from the library in college.

Then you probably did a search on ebay for statues, and you came across some Mao statue. We joked about leaving it some plaza in America somewhere.

Then you found the seller that did these super big statues.

Here's clippings from that IM conversation:

yikesmoose: remember when i used to check out statues from oak lawn public library? that was so much fun.

yikesmoose: here. you can buy a chairman mao statue for $0.99
Old-Brass-Figure-Statue-Mao-Zedong
and only $50 shipping!

spudart: i would tell you to buy it if was 7 feet tall
spudart: and then you could put it in a plaza somehwere

yikesmoose: coooooool
yikesmoose: no no. here's the challenge. find the best public space to put a chairman mao statue where it will stay the longest
yikesmoose: it could be a competition

yikesmoose: oh this is it. i want this. life-size buffalo statue New-Unique-Life-Size-Brown-Buffalo-Bison-Resin-Statue
yikesmoose: location is CHICAGO!
yikesmoose: the same guy has a life size moose. $1300.

Why you are not blogging this Mao-statue-in-a-chicago-park idea, i don't know.