A $770,000 bronze sculpture by British artist Henry Moore was stolen late Tuesday or early Wednesday from the garden of the Henry Moore Foundation, located at the artist's former home. According to the LA Times, officials speculate the 1965 sculpture will be sold as scrap parts.
Whenever an artwork is stolen it pains us inside, yet the thought of Moore's 22-inch delicate sundial being reduced to scrap metal is especially troubling. This would not be the first time a Moore piece was stolen and melted; in 2005 a $4.5 million dollar piece was stolen from the same property. The police, after an international search, determined the piece was melted down and sold for parts. The scrap value would only be about $2,300.
The police are keeping an open mind as to the motivations behind the theft. "It could have been stolen to put into another display or it could have been stolen to be melted down," a policewoman told the Daily Mail.
Moore is one of England's most beloved painters. His sculptures use abstract and hollow forms in large scale to imitate simultaneously the natural landscape and the female form. The police are looking for any information about the theft, so if you know anything, speak up before the sundial is no more!
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