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Heavy Heist

Figure Painting

by Callen Bair and Felix Salmon
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Oct 24 2007 12:00am EDT

Heavy Heist

This past weekend, thieves lifted seven bronze statues by Fernando Botero from a foundry in Pietrasanta, Italy that casts the Colombian artist's work. You can read the story here.

Each of the works weighed 55 - 66 pounds, which either means that these were some well-built thieves or that there were a lot of them. Of course, they were able to take their sweet time moving the load since they didn't have to worry about an alarm alerting police to the raid — the foundry hadn't turned it on because "it was often accidentally set off by animals." The words "negligent" and "lawsuit" come to mind.

Speculation is that this was a targeted job, as the thieves didn't steal work by any other artists that was in the foundry. Consider that two statues were stolen from Botero's home and studio in Pietrasanta just last year, and it certainly seems like the polizia have a Botero connoisseur on their hands.

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