Theodore Sprague and his oars have been ripped from his bronze canoe and stolen in yet another attack on public art. The $14,000 memorial has been in Corning’s Centennial Park since 2004 and depicted the well known businessman rowing a canoe on the Chemung River. It was his son who was the first to notice the statue was missing. The thieves if they try to sell it for scrap are expected to get 25 bucks for their trouble.

UPDATE :  Two youths have been arrested and charged with criminal mischief in the third degree over the theft of the bronze sculpture on Ted Sprague’s monument. The sculpture, which is believed to have been thrown into the Chemung River by the two youths, was later retrieved by firefighters.

The Wild Oak Saddle Club in Santa Rosa are dumb founded as to why someone would steal their 500lb bronze statue of a cowboy roping a steer.The statue , which is estimated to be worth $100,000, was taken from the front of the club on Tuesday.Money for metal is the logical answer. Bets are its heading to a recycling yard where it could net the thief at least $1,000 for his trouble.One of the locals expressed his view “I kind of want to shoot someone in the foot. It is really annoying, really disturbing and it makes us mad,” Metal theft is reaching an epidemic it seems.

Japan is having its fair share of Buddha statue thefts. Nine in a month to be exact. It seems they have a shifty little thief who is swapping them with fakes, in the hope they won’t be discovered missing (hmm smart). The statues, all of Buddha, have been stolen from temples and other places in five cities and towns in Shizuoka Prefecture since late July.

What is the world coming to when thieves start stealing policeman statues. It seems the 600lb bronze statue of a policeman issuing a ticket outside Macy’s in Stamford, Connecticut, has been stolen. The statue worth $120,000 was called “Time’s Up” (ironic, isn’t it?).A city spokesman said “they hope whoever took the statue will return it”(I am thinking, not likely!).

Heartless thieves have stolen a Haslingden sculpture created by children from a special school. The 7ft statue known as “The Workers” was created by pupils at Tor View Community Special School in Haslingden, North West England. The three “match stick” people were made from tubular steel pieces leading many to believe the figures could be on there way to a scrap metal yard. This is the second time the sculpture has been targeted by thieves since it was erected 2006.

UPDATE :  Well it seems our heartless thieves aren’t heartless at all. The stolen sculpture has not only been returned by the guilty thieves but they left a fifty pound note attached to a letter. The letter read : “We’re sorry. We didn’t know the children made this and we are very sorry for stealing drunken. I hope the attached £50 will cover the cost to re-weld him on. Don’t worry we’ve looked after him.”

A wooden statue of the goddess Kannon was stolen from a local temple last month only to find itself being passed around like a hot sweet potato. The “Senju Kannon” (Thousand-armed Kannon) statue, which was made during the Muromachi Period (1336-1573), was quite happily sitting in the Hozoji Temple’s Kannon hall in Shimada, Japan, when a shifty thief nicked it and swapped it for an inferior one. Somehow the Kannon statue ended up in a flea market in the nearby city of Fujieda where a shrewd art dealer spotted it and grabbed the bargain. Buying it for 7000 yen the dealer then sold it at auction for 500,000 (see, told you he was shrewd).From there it was again on-sold to a dealer in the Kansai district. Eventually a collector bought it, only to discover it was on a stolen list. He did the right thing and contacted the Shizuoka Prefectural Police. Investigators believe the original seller is the culprit. There have been three similar thefts in recent months.

A stolen bronze statue by sculptor J. Steward Johnson Jr.was recovered by Vancouver police. The popular bronze was stolen in June from Queen Elizabeth Park, with fears it was going to end up as scrap metal. Police had pre-empted that the thief/thieves would be heading for the scrap metal yards and their hunch eventually paid off. A woman is now being question after being caught on CCTV, but no charges have been laid…stay tuned. The statue, by the way, was worth about $5,000 as scrap metal.

The Bloomingdale High School (Tampa) has had their 400-lb anatomically correct bronze bull statue returned (just in case you were wondering) Yes, the school mascot was stolen from its anchors Monday Night. Following a tip off the big bovine was found in a storage facility.No arrests have been made as of yet.