[CPProt.net] 'Lara Croft' sculpture stolen from Canal Walk

[MSN CPPnet]

'Lara Croft' sculpture stolen from Canal Walk  
June 10, 2005

By Emily Goligoski

A sculpture worth R30 000 that resembles Tomb Raider character Lara Croft
has been taken from a Canal Walk art gallery and remains missing. 

Amanda Collins, owner of the Beauty of Africa Art Gallery, said yesterday
she had reported the theft to police. Milnerton police, however, say they
have no record of the report.

Collins said the bronze statue, Hotshot, by Cape Town sculptor Louis Chanu,
stood a metre high, weighed between 40kg and 50kg, and had perfect
proportions. It had been taken from the gallery between Friday and Tuesday,
but she did not know how, Collins said. 

She said two constables from the Milnerton police station had visited at 3pm
on Tuesday to investigate the theft. Milnerton police, however, said they
could find no record. Inspector Daphanie Dell said no such case had been
reported on Tuesday. 

The gallery, on the upper level, mainly sells oil paintings and has had the
sculpture on sale for six or seven months.

A clerk at the gallery told Collins she had dusted the sculpture on Friday.
A student who works there said she had not noted on Saturday whether the
piece was in the gallery.

A saleswoman, who asked that her name be withheld, said she had noticed on
Sunday morning that Hotshot was missing and assumed the piece had been sold.


It was not until Collins came in on Tuesday that the staff realised the
sculpture had been taken, she said.

"We dart in and out all the time and we're jolly quick, but only one person
works at a time. We have no idea how it was taken," said the saleswoman.  


Collins said the two constables had told her the statue had probably been
taken by someone who had come into the gallery before to see the piece.

"People admired it daily and the person who stole it could have talked to us
about the sculpture before they took it," said Collins. 

She said although the figure was not modelled directly on Croft, many people
thought that because it had a long plait and carried a gun, which pointed
down, it resembled the Tomb Raider heroine. 
Video footage from surveillance cameras at Canal Walk exits will take a few
days to transfer to videotape and could show who took the sculpture.

The artist and gallery owner said the piece could not be resold, even on the
internet, because it would be so easily recognisable.

Chanu said he was devastated the sculpture had disappeared. He said he had
been inspired by Croft, but had not based the sculpture on pictures of her. 

"I like to use strong women like that who look quite cool," said Chanu, who
described his work as "investment art".

He said he would use the mould to cast another figure if the first one was
not recovered. The statue, with its granite base, was a substantial thing to
steal, he said. Neither he nor the shop had insurance.

Two of Chanu's smaller pieces are for sale at the gallery. One is of a woman
with a pit bull terrier and the other of a seated woman smoking a cigarette.