Spanish sculpture is sold for scrap by thieves  

A scrap metal yard near Madrid was very nearly where a treasured steel sculpture by the celebrated artist Eduardo Chillida was destined to be melted  down. Thieves had tried to offload it for a few euros.
 
It was part of a haul stolen last month from a gallery warehouse. The owner of the yard said she gave the chap 33 euros for it.
 
The Chillida alone was worth over 800,000 euros and it was only one of several pieces by artists such as Picasso being stored in a lorry after being returned from an exhibition – and that is when the thieves struck.
 
“In the beginning we believed they had been stolen by very professional thieves. They’d opened the warehouse in less than three minutes and escaped with a lorry load of artworks,” said Gallery owner, David Fernandez.
 
The rest of the pieces were later discovered in a lock-up in a Madrid suburb. Police said the thieves had little idea of the value of what they had taken.
So far no one has been arrested for the theft.
 

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