Is the missing Queen Elizabeth Park statue bound for China?
The theft of a life-size bronze statue in Queen Elizabeth Park is only the latest in a series of brazen metal thefts taking place in cities around the world. Sometime Thursday night or Friday morning, thieves carted away a woman who was part of a public-art exhibit of three statues: a camerman, a couple, and a woman who were all being photographed in the park. Metal thefts of this nature were described in detail in Loretta Napoleoni’s recent book, Rogue Economics: Capitalism’s New Reality. She suggested that the metal thefts, including manhole covers in various cities, were being turned into scrap to feed China’s insatiable desire for steel. Vancouver police Const. Tim Fanning was quoted in today’s Province newspaper asking, “Why now?” An article published in the International Herald Tribune on March 28 provides some answers to that question, citing manhole thefts in many cities around the world, and Chinese buyers lining up to buy the scrap metal. “In Vancouver officials ordered stric
