[MSN] US. Chicago Sculpture Theft Probe Taps Dealers in Scrap, Not Art

[MSN]

Chicago Sculpture Theft Probe Taps Dealers in Scrap, Not Art
By Mario Parker

Feb. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Chicago police are searching for a stolen sculpture, and they suspect the culprit was more interested in scrap than art.

The circular metal work, called Umanita, or humanity in Italian, is -- or was -- six feet (1.8 meters) high and weighs 170 pounds (77 kilograms). It stood outside the Newberry Library on the city's north side.

At some time between late Feb. 16 and the afternoon of Feb. 18, Umanita was torn from its base and lugged away. As a work of art, the piece is worth as much as $70,000, said Virginio Ferrari, who created Umanita in 1987 by cutting, shaping and welding stainless steel.

The more relevant figure, police and art officials say, is $300. That's what the piece may fetch on the scrap market, probably double what it would have gotten a few years ago.

``The price of steel and metal is very high right now and historically when that happens people remove art,'' said Elizabeth Kelly, director of Chicago's Public Art Program. ``Scrappers seize the opportunity.''

Police spokesman Marcel Bright said he can't recall a work as big as Umanita getting snatched in the city, sometimes called the museum without walls because of its more than 700 pieces of outdoor art.

``Detectives are in touch with various scrap-yard businesses to be on the lookout,'' Bright said.

Sold in Chunks?

North American shredded scrap has gained 26 percent since December, to about $365 a ton this month from $290, according to Steel Business Briefing, an industry consultant.

``Prices in general in the past two or three years are at the highest levels we've seen,'' said Mike O'Malley, a sales manager at Acme Refining, a Chicago-based scrap dealer.

The piece is worth $200 to $300 sold off in chunks, said Mike Fine, a sales manager at L. Krinsky & Sons Inc., a Chicago- based dealer in scrap metals.

``Whoever stole this probably wasn't taking it for the art,'' Fine said. ``They would probably just cut it up so that it's not recognizable.''

The Newberry Library, which maintains a collection of rare books, music and manuscripts as part of its humanities focus, awards replicas of Umanita to honor contributions to the field. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley was a recipient last year.

The thieves pulled off their unlikely feat by rocking the piece back and forth until it broke free from a large bolt connecting it to a marble base, said Amy Jo Austin, a library spokeswoman.

`It's Expensive'

The library may not commission a replacement sculpture. `I don't think that's going to happen; it's expensive,'' Austin said.

Soaring metal prices may be boosting the value of other Chicago works, such as the steel Picasso outside the Richard J. Daley Civic Center Plaza downtown and Cloud Gate, the stainless steel sculpture that anchors the city's Millennium Park.

Those works would present a more daunting challenge to scrap hunters. The Picasso is 50 feet tall, and Cloud Gate weighs more than 110 tons.

Ferrari, 71, says this isn't the first time his artwork was stolen. A bronze piece was pilfered about 15 years ago and later recovered in a scrap yard, he said.

Ferrari isn't worried that his other art, like the 40-foot- tall Super Strength on the University of Illinois-Chicago campus, will disappear.

``Those are much, much bigger,'' he said. ``You would need a flatbed or a crane or something.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Mario Parker in Chicago at mparker22 at bloomberg.net .

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