A UNIQUE stained glass window stolen from one of Glasgow’s most prominent buildings almost a decade earlier was traced to the United States.
For 65 years, couples danced beneath the famous Gondola window in the ballroom of the Ca d’Oro at the corner of Gordon Street and Union Street until 1986, when the window and 26 other important pieces disappeared.
The works went missing without trace during restoration work on the building.
The owners, the Co-operative Insurance Society, believed the stained glass had been lost forever and commissioned an artist to make a replica of the Gondola.
But in 1995, the artist who designed the replica spotted a photo of the original in a magazine and police were alerted. They tracked down the work, designed by Charles Payne in the 1920s, to discover it had been sold to an art dealer in New Jersey.
At the time is had not been decided whether to try to claim the work back due to the legal costs in the US, but the Co-operative said if it was returned it would be donated it to Glasgow museums.

Glasgow Times:

1956:Bingham’s Pond was created in the 1880s on the site of old brick and coal pits. The boathouse was built around 1885 and later became a tea room. It was named after the Bingham family who hired out boats