$1.5 million bronze statue of Buddha stolen from gallery
By KCAL News Staff
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WEST HOLLYWOOD, California (KCAL) — Authorities are searching for information after a $1.5 million statue of Buddha was stolen from a gallery in West Hollywood last week.
According to Los Angeles Police Department, the theft occurred in the early morning hours of Monday Sept. 19, at the Barakat Gallery located in the 900 block of N. La Cienega Boulevard.
Officers were called to the gallery at around 10:30 a.m. on Monday after learning of the burglary.
The statue in question, a 250-pound bronze depitcion of Buddha, dates back to Japan’s Edo Period, which lasted from 1603 to 1867. According to the gallery’s website, the statue is credited to an artist named Tadazou Iinuma, and “likely once dominated the interior of a temple. Judging from the inscription, it is likely that this work was once placed in the Yudo-no-San Temple.”
The statue is about 4-feet tall according to an interview on theartnewspaper.com with the Barakat’s director, Paul Henderson.
Surveillance footage shows a lone suspect pulling up to the gallery in what appears to be a moving truck, breaking a gate to gain entry and using a dolly to load the statue onto the truck before driving away.
The Barakat Gallery, which also has locations in London, Seoul and Hong Kong, opened its Los Angeles location in 2017.
Anyone with information about the stolen sculpture was urged to contact the Los Angeles Police Department at 1 (877) 275-5273.
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