In terms of ambitious artwork heists, Thursday's theft of a Henry Moore sculpture (from the Henry Moore Foundation in Hertfordshire) has to be up there with the most audacious.
I have no idea how much 'public' sculpture is stolen globally every year (possibly a great deal) but one would generally consider 11ft long, 2.1 tonne pieces to be pretty safe and 'immovable'. Not so:
Two vehicles gained access to the courtyard of the Henry Moore Foundation…on Thursday evening. Three men then loaded the huge statue of "a reclining figure" onto the back of a Mercedes lorry using a crane. Officers investigating the theft believe it could have been stolen for scrap value.1
I'm not a great fan of Moore's work, to be honest, but I find it hard to believe that the 'scrap value' of such an object would be worth all the effort involved. Then again, I am sadly ignorant of the 'world of scrap'…there may be far more money in it than I realise.
I was also amused by the descriptions given, on the BBC website, of the possible culprits: "One offender is described as wearing a hooded jacket and one a baseball cap."2
Ah the old 'hooded jacket' and 'baseball cap'…how fast they've become ubiquitous symbols of 'anti-social' shenanigans of all kinds. Surely such items would be the last things the 'criminal element' should wear. I mean, they simply scream of illegal goings-on, and now seem to have replaced the below outfit as icons of dodginess…
Speaking of which, I wonder if there were ever hysterical calls to ban the wearing of stripy jumpers and eye-masks…?
I think these things are generally nicked to be ransomed back to the insurance company. It’s actually something of an industry. See Munch’s Scream and the various heists from the Beit collection at Russborough House.
December 17th, 2005 at 8:16 pmIt’s worth around £5000 if sold for scrap. Apparently. No doubt it’ll turn up at some car boot sale trying to be passed off as a badly cast anvil.
December 18th, 2005 at 3:27 pmI think the “scrappage” theory is a red herring designed to horrify poncey middle-class types. The usual journalistic standards prevailing. My theory has the advantage of allowing me to use the words “heist” and “ransom” in the same post. How sweet is that?
Perhaps fústar can shed light on why the word “heist” is used to denote what one might term “classy” crimes while “robbery” and “theft” do for the more bogstandard forms of larceny.
Speaking of which, if I was in the meeja and was indulging in sensationalist reporting, I’d have said
“One offender is described as wearing a hooded jacket and one a baseball cap, while their operations were directed by a tall man, slightly graying at the temples in a cravat and smoking jacket”
Maybe something was cast into the bronze. Perhaps a clue to the “sang real”, or a demon exorcised from the teenage daughter of a 1970s industrialist and committed to the sculpture by Moore and a cabal of jesuits.
December 18th, 2005 at 6:12 pmI’m intrigued to know how devo was able to work out the scrap value. Has his career taken a “Steptoe and Son”-esque turn?
December 19th, 2005 at 12:19 pmI recall a long running ‘tug-of-love’ battle fought between law enforcement officers, county officials and a certain nomadic element in a similar Irish case, though on a smaller scale. The ‘tug’ in question was over the extremities of the Cork Stag - a large public sculptor overlooking the Limerick/Cork road. The bronze sculptor was too difficult to shift in full but its huge genitals were constantly being knocked off, sold for scrap, replaced, knocked off, sold for scrap….
December 23rd, 2005 at 10:29 amRemember the GIANT warrior figure in the People’s Park years ago that kept getting its knob chopped off, supposedly by outraged citizens? Must be a Limerick thing.
December 23rd, 2005 at 1:02 pmI’d completely forgotten about the giant warrior figure in the People’s Park. He was continually being ‘de-knobbed’…probably by common or garden vandals hiding behind a cloak of supposed ‘moral outrage’.
As for bronze stag genitals…they make natty paperweights.
December 23rd, 2005 at 7:04 pm