Works of art worth over EUR300,000 stolen from Pharos warehouse
Cyprus Mail
August 17, 2013 Saturday
By George Christou
MODERN works of art worth EUR340,000 were stolen from a warehouse used
by the Pharos Arts Foundation, on Nicosia’s Green Line.
Among the items stolen were three metal tables and a wrought-iron door
by well-known British artist Richard Wentworth valued at about
EUR20,000 each. He had exhibited the tables and door as well as at an
exhibition at the Pharos Centre of Contemporary Art in 2007.
The theft was reported by the President of the Foundation Garo Keheyan
who had gone to the warehouse on Monday with a removal crew to move
cases containing art items. He found the cases prised open and the
contents missing.
Police investigations have so far yielded nothing, even though
speculation suggested that the thieves had broken into the warehouse
looking for scrap metal, which has become a valuable commodity in
these recession-hit times as it is easy to sell.
There were significant amounts of scrap metal that were part of art
installations stored in the warehouse which is situated on Ermou
Street, bordering the buffer zone in old Nicosia. Art would be sold as
scrap metal.
Ironically, artists like Wentworth, who had visited Cyprus several
times, would take discarded objects and turn them into art objects,
which could now be sold as scrap by the kilo.
A sledgehammer, found in a neighbouring garden and believed to have
been used by the thieves to make a big hole in the back of the
warehouse, was part of an art installation. It was taken by police for
forensic tests.
The thieves had smashed a hole in the wall at the back of the building
to get in and removed sheets of corrugated iron from the roof (perhaps
to sell as scrap) in order to remove some of the art items that were
bulky and heavy.
This was how they walked away with a 3×1 metre wooden frame with glass
and other large-sized items. They had also demolished the mezzanine at
the back of the building.
Many of the items, like the Wentworth tables, belonged to the artists
and were with the Pharos Centre of Contemporary Art on consignment.
Keheyan expressed shock at what had happened. He said: “It is so sad
that people on this island are resorting to theft as a way of making a
living.”
Two large art items that were not deemed valuable enough by the
thieves and were left behind had been used to cover a gap in the
barrier-fence on the Green Line. A neighbour had found them discarded
and used them to close the gaps in the barrier.
The items on chipboard, which the thieves snubbed and the neighbour
used as a barrier against the Turks, were by the renowned, late,
Armenian artist Marcos Grigorian, who has work on display at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York.