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.

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.

It seems like a public art fiasco. A decade old missing aluminum horse sculpture was found in someones backyard about the same  time as a rhino sculpture was nicked from outside a Tampa business. Seems like the Tampa police will need to take art appreciation lessons if this continues.
Someone obviously fancied themselves as a bit of an artist,as they gave the horse sculpture a bit of a once over with white paint.  They weren’t very imaginative though, painting three legs and part of its face. The horse was discovered after a tip off. Hmm the lady of the house claims her ex bought it at a yard sale for $25 ( Don’t tell Antique Roadshow!). And no, she ain’t confessing to the paint job either. The horse will be going back to the artist’s widow.
The Rhino sculpture on the other hand is still missing. The rhino, which is 10 feet long, 5 feet wide and weighs a few hundred pounds, was last seen outside a business on 12th street.

UPDATE : Stop the presses, Rhino sculpture has been found. The 200lb  steel sculpture was found dumped in the parking lot of the Round Up bar on W. Hillsborough Avenue. 

Dinopig, the life size plastic pig sculpture, has been found. The pig was part of a public art project in Bath, England. Dinopig is one of 100 swine statues found throughout Bath City and the second pig to be stolen in the past four weeks. The pigs are part of an exhibition telling the 3,000 year old legend of how King Bladud founded Bath while walking his pet pigs. The pig, which was worth around 750 pounds, was found near a children’s playground. The police are hoping to catch the swines responsible for Dinopigs disappearance!

A bronze statue of a girl holding an ice cream cone has and a balloon has been found at a San Gabriel Valley scrap yard. The $25,000 statue was nicked from a real estate company in July. Unfortunately the balloon was missing from the statue and is believed to have been already smelted. The culprit was trying to sell the statue for $180. Was it worth the trouble? Maybe he would have been better off trying to sell it as a garden ornament!

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.