More than four years after a famous sculpture of a young woman talking on a public phone was stolen from a busy section of Huaihai Road, police say they have arrested the three thieves and a man who helped them sell the bronze art work as scrap.
The missing sculpture was cut into pieces and sold to a metal trade market, the Shanghai Public Security Bureau announced yesterday afternoon.
The suspected thieves, three natives of Jiangsu Province, allegedly stole the bronze statue in February 2000 and sold it to a recycling station in Zhabei District for 700 yuan (US$84), according to police.
Police were first alerted on March 8, 2000 by an official surnamed Zheng from the Shanghai Urban Sculpture Committee, who noticed the statue was missing when he passed by its original site - a metro station entrance at the corner of Huaihai Road and Maoming Road.
However, a nearby newsstand owner allegedly told police that the "young woman" had vanished a month before.
"People thought that some government department moved the sculpture to other site, so they did not report to police in time," said Yang Ye, spokeswoman for the city's Public Security Bureau.
Although police interviewed more than 1,000 people, the lengthy investigation failed to turn up any clues or suspects as "there was no material evidence or witnesses."
The crucial breakthrough in the case occurred in July when a convict reported to local authorities that three garbage collectors, Hu Zhenglong, Zhao Xiejun and Xu Guoxing, once boasted about stealing a statue from Huaihai Road during the Spring Festival of 2000.
Hu was sent to prison for theft in 2002 and Zhao is currently in custody on burglary charges, official said.
Police caught up with Xu in Zhabei District on August 12 and he allegedly confessed to stealing the statue soon after his arrest.
"First, Zhao cut a small part of the statue stealthily one day to make sure it was made of real bronze and the trio went into action the next morning," said Xu Yaojin, vice director of the Luwan District Public Security Bureau.
Authorities did not provide the exact date of the theft but said it occurred at 4am when there were few people on the street.
"The suspects pulled down the sculpture with a rope, carried it to a recycling station on a bicycle cart and sold it to their fellow townsman surnamed Zhang," Xu said, adding that Zhang was captured on August 16.
Zhang allegedly helped to cut the statue into pieces with a cutting machine and bought the bronze at a price of six yuan per kilogram.
"The fragments finally went to a metal trade market in Wujiang, Jiangsu Province," Xu added.
The Shanghai Urban Planning Administrative Bureau announced in March that a replica of the famous statue will be installed downtown this year.