Meltdown hits Moore and Chadwick (Tuesday 31 January 2005)
compiled by Jessica Langan-Peck
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| Lynn Chadwick: The watchers, 1963; image held here |
Police in Britain fear that an increased demand for scrap metal is responsible for the recent string of sculpture thefts. The latest occurred on the grounds of Roehampton University in West London. Lynn Chadwick’s The watchers, a bronze figure worth approximately £300,000, had resided at Roehampton University for forty years.
On 10 January, one of The watchers was snapped off at the feet and taken. Authorities estimate that it would have required four to five people to carry the statue. Since the piece is so large, it is unlikely that the thieves intended to sell the sculpture to a private collector. Though the sculpture is worth a fraction of its original value once melted, local police suspect that the thieves are planning to make a quick profit on the scrap metal left behind. Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, is becoming a common thread in a series of sculpture thefts within the past six months.
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| Henry Moore: Reclining figure, 1969 - 70; image held here |
Less than a month before the theft of Chadwick's Watchers, an even more valuable sculpture was lifted from the Henry Moore Foundation in Hertfordshire, England. Moore's Reclining figure, a two-ton piece made of solid bronze, was worth £3 million. This time the sculpture was lifted onto a flatbed lorry by a crane. Moore is well known in Britain for his huge reclining sculptures. The artist's will states that his original moulds will never be cast from again. Unless the sculpture is somehow recovered, Reclining figure is irreplaceable.
Vernon Rapley of the Metropolitan police expressed his deep disappointment in the thefts last week. He said, "The people perpetrating these crimes appear to have no appreciation of, or respect for, the objects they are stealing." These rare pieces of sculpture, once thought safe because of their sheer size, seem to be the new target of ambitious thieves hoping to get rich quick. A hunk of scrap metal hardly seems worth all the trouble.
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| Responses so far |
| Comment 1 |
I enjoyed this article written Jessica Langan-Peck. This
was
a terrible crime and I hope they catch the people who are
responsible.
Betsy P. Berry
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