Friday, January 04, 2008

Scrap

Another story from before the break: thieves stole $1 million worth of sculptures from artist Joel Fisher's Vermont studio -- only to sell them for their scrap value of $4,000.

Ed Winkleman comments: "The thieves were not, I'm guessing, connected enough to hawk the work as 'art,' which could have brought them a much greater return for their efforts. ... Strong [the three thieves] must have been ('some of the sculptures weighed up to 800 pounds'), but underworld masterminds, not so much. Had they known either Fisher (or his reputation) or someone within the segments of organized crime who can unload a stolen artwork, they might have managed better than 0.4% of the market value."