Jacques Villeneuve has called out the “shameless and soulless beings” who stole a bronze statue of his late father Gilles Villeneuve from the museum that bears his name in Quebec.

The statue of Gilles Villeneuve was sculpted as a tribute to the six-time Grand Prix winner, who tragically lost his life in 1982 in an accident during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder.

Jacques Villeneuve slams the “shameless, soulless” thieves.

The life-size statue was stolen from outside the memorial museum two weeks ago, with thieves cutting it off at the ankles.

The Gilles Villeneuve Museum took to social media to ask for the public’s help, offering $12,000 to recover the statue. The museum fears the statue could be melted down for bronze.

“There is no question!” read the post. “The important thing is to get Gilles back to his museum!”

Jacques Villeneuve, son of Gilles, blamed the thieves.

“My father’s bronze monument was stolen from the museum. Those shameless, soulless beings don’t deserve to be called human,” he wrote on Instagram.

Gilles Villeneuve: One of the best drivers to never win a world title

Villeneuve Pironi: A relentless tragedy through the eyes of their families

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: Gilles Villeneuve

Villeneuve opened up to CanadaCasino.ca about his thoughts on the theft and the “idiots” who stole it.

“Why would anyone do that? I just don’t understand. It’s not like gold or diamonds that you can steal and hide and then sell. It defies belief,” he said.

“It’s quite a big and heavy piece and it would take a lot of effort to cut it and you’d need a big truck to get it.

“No one noticed, which I thought was even crazier. How do you not notice someone doing this? And what do you do with it? His legs are missing. You can’t sell it because if you tried, people would immediately realize they were the idiots who took it.

“If you melted it down, it wouldn’t be worth much. Bronze is not that valuable. So it’s pointless…financially, with the amount needed to take it, it doesn’t make sense.”

Gilles Villeneuve lost his life when he suffered a fatal neck fracture in a crash during qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder when he collided with Jochen Mass.

The two made contact when Villeneuve, on a fast lap, clipped Mass’s car and was launched into the air. His Ferrari it hit the ground about 100 meters later and broke up as it rolled along the edge of the runway. Villeneuve was thrown from the wreckage.

Airlifted to St Raphael University Hospital, he was pronounced dead later that night.

Read on: Has Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari replacement already been found with the ‘ready-made’ F1 star?