[MSN] South Africa. Statue thieves on the run. Three men allegedly involved in stealing a bronze Cape Town struggle monument to sell to a scrapyard have been arrested, but another 10 suspects are on the run.

[MSN]

Statue thieves on the run
Anton Ferreira 	Published:Mar 10, 2008

Three men allegedly involved in stealing a bronze Cape Town struggle monument to sell to a scrapyard have been arrested, but another 10 suspects are on the run.

Pieter van Dalen, head of a city task team set up to combat the theft of copper cable and other metals, said yesterday that those arrested at the weekend were believed to be middle-men in the sale of the statue.

He said: “Now we are looking for the 10 people who actually removed it, took it away in a vehicle and cut it up.”

The monument — sculptures of two MK activists who were killed in an explosion in 1989 — was stolen last Tuesday from its pedestal outside the Athlone Magistrate’s Court.

Van Dalen said 64 “smashed up” pieces of the monument had been recovered from a scrapyard. They represented about half the original 600kg sculpture.

“The thieves were paid R9000 for 300kg,” he said. “But we’re hot on their trail. We hope to recover all the pieces.”

http://www.thetimes.co.za