You can't have missed the news about the Henry Moore stolen from the Henry Moore Foundation's sculpture park in Hertfordshire on December 17th. Reclining Figure weighed about ten tons and is valued at around 3 million pounds. Pundits are speculating that it was most likely stolen for scrap. Its scrap value of around 5000 pounds compares to the reward offered for its return: 100,000 pounds. If the thieves were art-ignorant, there will be some regrets.

But did you catch this news item that appeared some four days earlier, in a New Zealand website:

Tuesday, 13 December 2005
Security tightened around sculpture

Security guards are being deployed around the clock to protect a valuable sculpture in Wellington's Botanic Gardens after a tip-off that it could be stolen.

The Henry Moore bronze work, Inner Form, is five metres high, weighs one and a half tonnes and is valued at up to $8 million.

Wellington City Council chief executive Gary Poole says the security arrangements are costing around $4,000 a week, but he understands that the person who gave the tip-off has provided reliable information in the past.

He says given that in recent times other bronze works have been stolen, he would rather play it safe.

A coincidence? Perhaps not.Perhaps this is why, according to today's Independent:

The police have not discounted the possibility that the bronze will be shipped overseas and an alert has gone out to all ports as well as to Interpol in case it is offered for sale abroad.

Technorati Tags: public art, art theft, sculpture

# posted @ 10:37 AM