The goddess Victory stands on a granite pedestal lined with the etched names of war dead in a parklet at 46th and Butler streets in Lawrenceville.

When Lea Donatelli got out of the car, she cocked her head and said, "This is where we're supposed to be, but that's not the right statue."

The statue she expected has wings. This one was holding a shield in one arm and a huge feather in the other.

"Pittsburgh likes to move its public art," said Renee Piechocki, who, with Ms. Donatelli and intern Stuart Naranch, has been helping the city get a handle on its total inventory.

Their mission is one part verification, one part treasure hunt.

Right now, the city has records of about 100 pieces of public art, from old stoic statues and war monuments to whimsical metal abstractions, fountains and griffins.

What isn't known is how many out there haven't been counted. In some cases, as in the case of Victory, a World War I memorial by Frank Vittor, the art is not where the records show it is, having been either moved or cataloged incorrectly. Some have no pedestal signs to indicate the date, artist or relevance. Some signs exist without art.

This is how Pittsburgh Post-Gazette readers can get involved.

"If people know of public art in their community, or have photos and dates of the installation or know who the artist was, or any information" relevant to the piece, "we want e-mails," said Ms. Piechocki. The address is opa@pittsburghartscouncil.org.

Through next spring, the conservators will be correcting discrepancies, creating an inventory database and notating needs for repair. Then, a process will begin to restore errant art to rightful places and redirect pieces from uninspiring, no longer meaningful settings.

The project is a partnership of the city's Planning Department and the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, with Heinz Endowments support that will add a public art manager to the Planning Department next year.

When Marilyn Evert wrote "Discovering Pittsburgh Sculpture" in 1983, the goddess Victory stood near Butler and Home streets in Lawrenceville, several blocks from where she stands now. Her current site near the senior center is somewhat new, but there is no record of her movement or the reason for it.

Throughout the city, sculptures have been moved over the years. Community groups have moved them for a better fit, or developers have had the city move them. It's been easy to lose track with no inventory to update.

Ms. Evert's book has been invaluable, even when a sculpture isn't where her book said it was. The movement can at least be noted as post-publication, said Ms. Piechocki.

Art that was not commissioned by the city or donated by a wealthy sponsor was often the result of the good intentions of private individuals.

In Morrow Park, where Liberty Avenue, Baum Boulevard and Aiken Avenue come together in Bloomfield, a hexagonal monolith dedicated to the memory of World War II dead from the 8th Ward was dedicated on Flag Day, 1949, after having been veiled for some time because the groups who raised the money fell short on their debt. Mayor David Lawrence is reported to have paid the $15,000 balance on the $22,000 project.

As part of a national push in 1995 by a group called Save Outdoor Sculpture, Pittsburgh took an inventory; it's how much of the city's current inventory was established.

Garfield's "Gateway 2001" is too new to have been included.

The sculpture, by Jeremy Groznik and Michael D. Walsh, is installed in two equal pieces about 15 feet up from street level on two buildings at the corner of Penn and Evaline Street. It was a project of the Friendship Development Association.

It requires that you look up and see Penn Avenue in panorama as you approach Evaline from the west.

"People who are new to the neighborhood notice it right away," said Rick Swartz, executive director of the Bloomfield Garfield Corp.

Ms. Piechocki said she has been in the city for three years and knew exactly what Ms. Donatelli meant when she described it as "the one with silver, machine-looking parts."

In Allegheny Commons Park, more familiarly West Park on the North Side, Christina Schmidlapp has been coordinating a restoration plan that calls for the return of one of the sweetest pieces of public art to its original spot on Federal and Montgomery streets.

"For Man Beast and Bird, 1901" is an 8-foot-tall-by-6-foot-wide sculpture in Barrie granite commissioned by socialite Annie Hartzell of a Chicago architect for $18,000. It provides basins for people, birds, horses, squirrels and any other frequenter of the park to drink from.

"It's in a bad setting now," where people can't see it, at Federal Street and Allegheny Commons North, on Allegheny Circle, said Ms. Schmidlapp. "It spent a few decades in Market Square" before then-city Councilman Baldy Reagan returned it to the North Side, she said. "It will go back in its own spot on the promenade" once the commons are restored.

The commons are home to at least a dozen pieces of art, monuments and statues, "probably more than people realize," said Ms. Schmidlapp. "Everyone brings a different experience to [viewing] it, but what it says is that someone cared about the place."