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June 03, 2006
Stolen statues
The recent theft of two statues commemorating the fallen of World War 1 originally, but no doubt extended to cover the second great conflict shows how appalling is the fall from decency in this country under the libertarian regimes of the last fifty years. The news story highlights the fact that a total of 20 - yes 20! - very large bronze statues and works of art have been stolen in the last year. The worst aspect of this is that they are undoubtedly being melted down and sold on as "scrap" by the thieves since the manner of their seizing them is almost certainly causing damage that would make them valueless to any art "lover" trying to collect them!
I find it appalling that anyone could stoop this low, I find it even more a symptom of the "nuffink to do wiv me guv'" attitudes that pervade our society (unless it involves fitting up some teacher or parent who dares to discipline an out of control child) that no one has come forward to give information on the thefts. It is not exactly easy to shift several tons of bronze, even more difficult to pass it on to an honest scrap merchant, yet no one seems to ever see anything. Even though the thefts invariably require cutting equipment, a crane to lift the item and all take place at night - a time when most council emplyees are hardly likely to be carrying out repairs to a statue! Certainly not the ones I have known anyway!
Nothing is apparently sacred, so we can expect our War Memorials to be destroyed one by one as these thieves strip the bronze statues one by one with impunity. Twenty memorials and works of art cannot simply vanish - not when they weigh in at several tons to start with! Someone is receiving these destroyed items and someone must see them at work - so why have the police not managed to catch them yet?
Or perhaps I am missing the important point - in the eyes of our anti-militarism Labour Junta these statues "glorify" war, ergo they must be got rid of! So, since they cannot do it openly, the answer is to get someone to steal them and destroy them. Nah - can't be that simple, not even Blair is that intelligent!
All joking aside, the police need to trace this gang and their buyers - and put them behind bars for a very long time!
Posted by The Gray Monk at June 3, 2006 09:43 PM
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Comments
In my brief stay in the world of art transport, I learned that moving bronze statues is a tricky business. Of course it's slightly easier to move them when you're not worried about damaging them, but even when you're doing a hatchet job the size, shape and weight of statues makes them dangerous to move without care. If one of the thieves gets crushed by a statue then we'll know they're amateurs who've been lucky so far. If they manage it without any injuries, I would suggest that the police should start looking at people who have experience in moving statues. I was about to say I'd be surprised if they hadn't already, but now that I think about it, the police are probably told that it's "too difficult and not important enough" a crime to solve and told to get on with chasing people who are speeding.
Posted by: The Postulant at June 4, 2006 11:37 AM