[CPProt.net] disappearance of a $10, 000 bronze statue from a Cape Cod cemetery was not vandalism, but art theft

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Hunt on for Cape Cod cemetery statue

YARMOUTH, Mass., Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Police in Yarmouth, Mass., say the
disappearance of a $10,000 bronze statue from a Cape Cod cemetery was not
vandalism, but a professional art theft. 

The work, titled "Mary, Mary Quite Contrary," after the nursery rhyme,
weighs several hundred pounds, and was affixed to the tombstone of a member
of Robert Ream's family. 

Ream discovered it missing last week, and said he knew instantly it was not
merely vandalism, the Yarmouthport Register reported. 

"There's a professionalism about the way they removed it from its concrete
base. There's no question that they stole it to sell it," he said. 

The statue depicts a small girl sitting on one leg with the other dangling.
Bells and cockles surround the child's waist. Ream said only one other
version of the statue exists in a London courtyard that is closed to the
public. 

Police and the family are spreading the news of the theft in art and
antiques publications in hopes of recovering the statue, the report said.

http://www.upi.com/