Melted $7.7m art makes $3900

LONDON - One of the most audacious British art thefts, the disappearance of a two-tonne Henry Moore sculpture worth £3 million ($7.7 million), has been solved by police, who discovered that the internationally revered Reclining Figure sculpture was melted down and sold for no more than £1500.

The bronze sculpture was stolen from the 30ha estate of the Henry Moore Foundation in Much Hadham, Hertfordshire, in December 2005. The theft baffled art and crime experts and sparked a global hunt for the culprits.

Police feared at first that it had been stolen to order, but investigations suggest it was taken by a group of travellers from Essex and the metal may have ended up feeding China's growing demand for electrical components.

Detective chief inspector Jon Humphries, of Hertfordshire police, said it is believed the figure was "irreparably damaged" shortly after being taken away on a flat-bed truck.

Inquiries indicate the statue was moved through a scrap dealer in east London and on to another scrapyard in Essex. Shortly afterwards it was shipped abroad, possibly to Rotterdam and then further east, circumventing an order to Interpol to monitor all ports for the distinctive figure.

Humphries said the sculpture, 3m-long and 2m-high, may have made just £1500 as scrap metal, a value that equates to a few hundred pounds in current market prices.

- OBSERVER