Not an easy snatch and grab

A thief managed to make off with a piece of a copper sculpture as it was being installed in a New York park.

The piece was part of an exhibition of Vietnamese artist Danh Vo's work "We the People", organised by the Public Art Fund. We the People is a life-size replica of Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty, recreated by Danh Vo in about 250 individual pieces.

One part of We the People

MyFoxNY reports that the robbery took place last week in City Hall Park - one of the locations of the exhibition, which was due to open on 17 May. The piece taken was a large, chain link section made of copper resembling a portion of the Statue of Liberty's foot. It is said to weigh about 40lbs and be worth about $6,000.

It does not appear that the theft has impacted on the opening of the exhibition, which can now be seen in both City Hall Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park. The police are investigating.

More details on the exhibition can be found here.

Egyptian Art Ravaged

Back in 2011, the political and civil unrest in Egypt led to the destruction and theft of numerous artworks (reported here).

With the continuing turmoil over there, it appears that the same thing is happening once more. Russia Today reports:

As Egypt plunges deeper into the political turmoil, looters take advantage of the situation – and the latest robbery of the Malawi Museum in the city of Minya, 300km from Cairo, has been the biggest of its kind in the Egyptians’ living memory.  

Looters got away with more than 1,000 objects, including a prized 3,500-year-old limestone statue, ancient beaded jewelry, gold and bronze Greco-Roman coins, pottery and bronze-detailed sculptures of animals sacred to Thoth, one of the ancient Egyptian deities represented with the head of an ibis. 

The building was initially vandalized last Wednesday, with looting and burning going on for almost a week now. Local teenagers burned and destroyed mummies and other objects of art which were too heavy for robbers to carry.  

This is reportedly the biggest museum theft in Egyptian history. It is terrible to hear, yet again, about the destruction of these invaluable artworks.

Source: Russia Today, 20 August 2013

Inept thief charged with stealing Dali

Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio by Salvador Dali

There are widespread reports this week of the case brought by the New York authorities against a Greek man in relation to a bungled attempt to steal this Dalí painting from New York gallery, Venus Over Manhattan.

Last June, in broad daylight, Phivos Istavrioglou walked into the gallery, pulled the painting off the wall and put it in his shopping bag – in front of security cameras and leaving fingerprints in the process. Once photos of him from the security cameras started to circulate, Istavrioglou was scared into removing the picture from its frame, rolling it up and sending it back to New York.

Gotcha!

Unfortunately for Istavrioglou, New York detectives were able to lift his fingerprints from the package, which they then matched to those taken from another shoplifting incident, and were thus able to identify Istavrioglou. As a final step, an undercover policeman posed as an art gallery owner and convinced Istavrioglou to return to New York with the offer of a consultant position. Upon his touch down at JFK, Istavrioglou was arrested.

Istavrioglou has pleaded not guilty to grand larceny. Bail has been set at $100,000 (£65,000).


Source: New York Post, 19 February 2013, The Guardian, 20 February 2013

Two Forms (Divided Circle): Permanently Separated by Scrap Metal Theft

Two Forms (Divided Circle) in its original glory 

One of the more dramatic art stories to hit the news at the end of last year was the theft of Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture, Two Forms (Divided Circle), from Dulwich Park in South London.

This bronze sculpture, one of six casts, had stood in the park for more than 40 years. It weathered the seasons and successfully evaded graffiti artists only to mysteriously vanish overnight following an apparently well co-ordinated theft from the park.

The theft was not a traditional art heist but for the purpose of the sculpture's resale value as scrap metal. Indeed, the general media consensus is that it has most likely already been melted down.

Post theft orange tape

Art Theft Central has been regularly reporting on the dangers of scrap metal theft, which has targeted everything from copper railway cables to sculptures including war memorials. Rising prices for copper, lead and bronze coupled with relatively loose regulation of the scrap metal industry have contributed to a nationwide increase in metal theft. By way of example, according to the BBC, last year there were more than 2,500 claims for the theft of metal from churches.

According to the Association of Chief Police Officers, metal theft is estimated to cost the UK economy £770m every year.

There is currently a private member’s bill in the House of Commons (second reading on 20 January 2012). This includes the key requirement that financial transactions be limited to non-cash (traceable) payments. You can track the bill’s progress through Parliament here.

Source: The Guardian

Barbican Art Theft

The Barbican Art Gallery in the City of London suffered what was apparently the first art theft in its history in May this year.

Thieves stole a number of parts from a sculpture entitled "Glass Plant: Garbage Bricks" (1970-1971) by artist Gordon Matta-Clark which was on display in the exhibition "Pioneers of the Downtown Scene, New York 1970s", which the Gallery hosted between March and May.

Not your average brick. One of bricks from the sculpture - made from bottles gathered from New York city by Matta-Clark.

The Gallery tried to track down anyone who might have seen what happened to the work using booking information and members' details, but has so far been unsuccessful. It has now offered a reward for information leading to the recovery of the piece.

Source: The Evening Standard, 26 August 2011

The rights of (snow)man

Snow is not the most stable of artistic materials and even if it survives a thaw, there is always the risk that it may get stolen…

There’s been a lot of commentary recently about the stolen snowman of Kent. Most of this commentary has criticised/ridiculed the woman for reporting such a trivial event. However, little thought has been given to the rights which were stolen along with the snow, pound coins (eyes) and teaspoons (arms) which constituted the snowman in question. Was there a more sinister force at work? Why was the snowman taken in its entirety, rather than just the coins and teaspoons, were the thieves in fact after the snowman as a sculpture?

For it was not just the snowman that was stolen but also the potential to exploit the artistic and moral rights in the snowman. Despite the apparent lack of originality, the snowman may well have attracted copyright protection as a sculpture. As it is an artistic work, there is no requirement for recording in order for copyright to protect the work.

The creator does not appear to have exercised her right to object to derogatory treatment of the work and in most reports she has not even been identified as the sculptor. Although there is little that can be achieved in such circumstances

Some doubters have suggested that the snowman melted. But the evidence refutes such a simple explanation. The phone call clearly demonstrates that there was still ice on the road and no suggestion of a thaw. Further the call clearly indicated that someone had stolen the snowman in its entirety rather than simply the pound coins and teaspoons which were arguably the elements of the snowman with the greatest short term resale value.

As the caller commented:

"It ain't a nice road but you don't expect someone to nick your snowman."

Sadly, the police did not take the case seriously at the time and as the snow has mostly melted the trail of the snowman (and most probably the snowman itself) has gone cold. This is one art theft that is destined to remain a mystery.