Made of fiberglass and painted by different artists, the exciting large-scale public art project was conceived by the Volunteers of America and the Catholic Big Brothers and made a reality thanks to the L.A. Convention & Visitors Bureau and the mayor’s office.

The project, called “Community of Angels,” riffed on the city’s name by scattering literal angels across the city. It was said to be inspired by Chicago’s 1999 public art display of a similar theme: “Cows on Parade.”

If you lived in Los Angeles in the early 2000s, it was impossible not to see these angels. Unfortunately, the project only took flight for a short time, with the statues eventually being auctioned off to benefit youth programs around the city. A little over $100,000 was raised with the remaining angels sold online.

Twenty-five years later, most are now in the hands of private collectors and businesses who proudly display them in their offices, but there are still a few to be found in public if you know where to look. Santa Monica tends to have a few scattered around, including one in front of the XYZ Media building on Olympic Boulevard. One angel still stands in its original spot at the main entrance to Los Angeles General Medical Center, and the so-called Travel Angel, created by artists Dean and Laura Larson, is tucked away in a corner of the Original Farmers Market. Further out, an angel statue can be found at the 27-acre Century Villages at Cabrillo campus in Long Beach, and there’s one in Claremont’s Mallows Park.

There are more angels out there in the wild, but to date there is no updated database of where they are.