On Jan. 10, at a university campus in Roehampton, a 2.2-m-tall sculpture weighing one-third of a ton by the British modernist Lynn Chadwick was hacked from its plinth. One of a trio of figures, The Watchers, it is valued at $1 million — far less than the $5.4 million price tag on Henry Moore's 2.5-ton Reclining Figure that in December was lifted, using a stolen flatbed crane, from the grounds of the late artist's foundation in Hertfordshire. The other pieces, among them a war memorial, a giant dung beetle and a life-size boar, are less valuable and have nothing in common except that they are big, unguarded — and made of bronze.
Thieves may not know much about art, but they know what they like: Moore's Reclining Figure could earn them a quick $9,000 from a chop shop.
