US$1.5 million Japanese Buddha statue stolen from Los Angeles art gallery in midnight heist
- The thief seized the 113kg bronze sculpture from the Barakat Gallery in an operation that took less than 25 minutes
- The gallery’s owner acquired the artefact 55 years ago and kept it in his backyard in Los Angeles for many years
The thief pulled up to an antiquities gallery on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles with a clear plan.
He backed a rental van into the gallery driveway, broke through a gate and entered a storage yard carrying a moving dolly. Bypassing African wood carvings, Japanese terracotta roof tiles and assorted stone sculptures, he seized a massive 113kg (250 pounds) bronze Buddha statue worth US$1.5 million. The entire operation took less than 25 minutes.
The identity and motive of the thief who hit the Barakat Gallery around 3am (local time) on Monday remained a mystery on Saturday. Was he a connoisseur of temple art from feudal Japan? Was he hired by someone who was? Or was he just one of the many scrap metal scroungers who prowl Los Angeles by night and entirely oblivious to the object’s historical value?
With Los Angeles police investigating, gallery staff were re-watching surveillance video that captured part of the crime and batting around various theories.
“We’ve been trying to put the pieces together,” said Paul Henderson, the gallery director.
I hope that the person who stole it is not stealing it for the weight of the bronze because it’s a historical item
The missing item is a seated Buddha with a halo, roughly 121cm (4 feet) tall, created during Japan’s Edo Period (1603-1867) probably as the centrepiece of a temple, according to the gallery.