$24K bronze sculpture stolen from outside Vancouver gallery

A thief has made off with a160-kilogram,$24,000 bronze statue that was on displayoutside the doorway of a Granville Street art gallery.

Security video captureda white man wheeling a dolly to the front steps of PetleyJones Gallery at 5:23 a.m. Monday.

In the footage, the man disappears from view for a few minutes, then reappears dragging theheavy,metre-tallpiece of art down the stairs before loading it on a dolly and rolling it away south on GranvilleStreet toward 7th Avenue.

A second camera catches him going along 7thAvenue. A third camera at the back of the gallery then shows him turning north down the lane before disappearing.

The entire crime took less than three minutes.

Brazen thief steals $24,000 bronze statue from Vancouver art gallery

5 years ago

Duration 1:25

Security cameras capture a thief with a dolly removing a 160 kg work of art from the doorway of the Petley Jones Gallery on Granville Street.

"I'm really shocked,"saidgallery manager Vesna Zaric."It's been there foralmost twoyears, and we've never had a problem with anyone attempting anything. Even when we tried moving it inside, we weren't able to move it."

The work, entitled After Marino Marini by local artistFahri Aldin, is of an abstracthorse and rider.

"[Aldin] is ...extremely well regarded. This is a unique piece, there will never be one like it again," said Zaric.

It's the latest in a recent rash of valuable art thefts from galleries in the area, but Zaric says there's no way to know if the cases are connected.

"All of those are original pieces. It's a horrific idea to think that someone might melt it down for something else," she said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Petley Jones Gallery or police.