EVERETT – A bronze sculpture stolen from an Everett park last September would only bring about $100 if it was melted down and recycled.
But the theft of the 150-pound art piece wound up costing the city’s insurance provider $26,000 to replace.
Sultan sculptor Kevin Pettelle believes metal thieves took his 31/2-foot-tall piece, “Neck Fragment,” which was stolen from Evergreen Arboretum and Gardens in Legion Park.
A city insurance policy paid Pettelle for the loss of the work, which the city had been leasing the statue for $500 a year.
“It’s disheartening and I feel violated, especially if it’s going for something as superficial as drugs,” said Pettelle, whose work primarily focuses on the human body. “My guess is that it was taken for the bronze and that it’s long gone.”
“Neck Fragment” had been on display with permanent art pieces and sculptures on loan at the 2.4-acre arboretum since the summer of 2005.
Somebody knocked over the work and sawed the metal sculpture from its base.
When he first started sculpting 27 years ago, Pettelle said no one could have predicted that people would one day steal bronze sculptures to melt down for the metal. That was the sort of thing one might expect with sculptures made of more precious metals, such as silver.
But the times have changed.
His hunch that the bronze was recycled is based on a nationwide rash of metal thefts.
Prices for copper, the main ingredient of bronze, which is an alloy, have skyrocketed recently, a result of demand in China and other quickly developing countries. A consequence of that markup has been an increase in thefts.
Around the Puget Sound area, metal thieves have been particularly brazen, stealing 2,000 feet of power line that was downed in November’s snowstorm. In February, Snohomish County PUD reported that more than half a mile of wire from streetlights on U.S. 2 near Index was stolen.
In March, thieves in Federal Way made off with a handmade 23-pound copper gong from Three Trees Yoga &Healing Arts Center, which members feared ended up in a scrap yard.
Other notable metal thefts in the news include brass flag holders, ripped from the graves of veterans in Pennsylvania and a brass church bell lifted from a heritage site in Quebec.
Like pawnbrokers, scrap metal dealers are required to record the identities of their suppliers. Not all operate above board, police say.
Authorities this week raided a south Seattle scrap yard, which police say was knowingly buying stolen metal items, including copper wire from utility companies.
The theft of the sculpture from Evergreen Arboretum and Gardens in Legion Park marks the first time anything was stolen from a public arts program, in which the city leases sculptures from local artists, Everett spokeswoman Kate Reardon said.
The four-year-old program, run by the city’s municipal arts department, has a total of 17 sculptures downtown along Colby Avenue, and a handful at the Arboretum.
Later this year, it plans to develop a brochure to promote the downtown sculpture walk.
Reardon said city park rangers patrol the area where the sculpture was stolen, but can’t always avoid determined thieves.
“We rely on the eyes and ears of people out there,” she said.
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
Anyone with information about the sculpture is asked to call the Everett Police Department’s tip line at 425-257-8450.
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