Scrap metal or art?

A collection of stolen art worth millions of pounds which was stolen from a warehouse in Madrid back in September has been recovered.

Spanish police were reportedly tipped off after one of the thieves tried to sell a steel sculpture by Spanish artist Eduardo Chillida worth at least £675,000 to a scrapyard for 30 euros.

The collection, which also included works by Pablo Picasso, Antonio Saura and Fernando Botero belonging to galleries in Madrid, Barcelona and Cologne, was then recovered just a few miles away.

The works had only just returned from being exhibited in Germany when they were stolen in September. Indeed, they were all still stored in the lorry which had been transporting them, which was taken. Accordingly, at the time, it was suspected that the robbery was an inside job.

However, with the attempt to sell the Chillida sculpture for scrap, and the subsequent recovery of all the works within a short distance, it now appears to police that the robbers were merely amateurs who chanced upon a lorry full of valuable art works.

Scrap metal?


Source: BBC 21 December 2010