Update: Rocky’s Halloween tutu has gone missing

Normally, my son Louden and I scoff at the Phoobies posing with the Rocky statue when we pass by the Philadelphia Museum of Art en route to and from his preschool. But today, Halloween 2013, I just had to park along Pennsylvania Avenue, cross over and snap a photo of the Italian Stallion.

This, because it’s a rarity to see Balboa sporting pageant gear. Not sure who did this overnight, but if this marks guerrilla marketing for an upcoming Pretty-in-Pink Boxers and Tiaras show, well, that’d be groovy.

UPDATE:

As of 12:45 p.m. Thursday, Rocky was no longer wearing pageant gear.

When NewsWorks called seeking answers, a spokesperson for the museum referred all statue-related questions to the Fairmount Park Commission.

At that point, the Mayor’s press office was contacted to serve as a fact-finding intermediary. From the second floor of City Hall, a spokeswoman called the FPC and learned that the statue is actually overseen by the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy. Specifically, it is under the purview of that office’s Public Arts Director.

And what did we learn?

“Nobody at [either entity] knows who took the tutu,” the mayor’s-office spokeswoman told NewsWorks.

Responding to another leading (but sarcastic) question about civic spoil-sportery, she concluded that “it wasn’t the city taking joy away from anybody.”

All of which is to say the identity of the person(s) who has Rocky Balboa’s tiara and tutu remains a mystery.