It took artist and filmmaker Sir Daniel Winn over a year to create the two imposing sculptures, which are made of thousands of pounds of bronze and stainless steel.
Within a weekend, they were gone.
According to police, at least one criminal stole two sculptures, Icarus Within and Quantum Mechanics: Homme, worth a total of $2.1 million, from a warehouse in Anaheim Hills on June 14 or 15. Inside the warehouse, other valuables and artwork that would have been simpler to relocate remained undisturbed. Authorities know very little about the theft.
Regretfully, we don’t have much information, but we are looking. Sgt. Matt Sutter of Anaheim Police stated.
The award-winning short film Creation in 2022 includes the life-sized Quantum Mechanics: Homme artwork, which is made of lucite, bronze, and stainless steel and features a man with wings and horns. It is worth $1.8 million.
A second sculpture by Winn, Icarus Within, is made of steel and bronze, is eight feet tall, weighs a ton, and is worth $350,000. It is partly inspired by the sculptor’s tumultuous adolescent escape from Vietnam.
According to the Anaheim Police Department, warehouse employees in Anaheim Hills last saw the two sculptures on Saturday when they were being kept in a temporary location.
Police said both components were gone when the workers returned to the facility on Monday.
While one art recovery specialist fears the two sculptures may be demolished for scrap metal, Winn thinks the pieces might have been taken by a dishonest collector.
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Glenn Steven Bednarsh is charged with intentionally purchasing an estimated $175,000 worth of stolen Andy Warhol artwork and attempting to sell it to an auction house.
According to Winn, these sculptures usually require a truck or trailer to transport, two forklifts, and perhaps a dozen personnel to move during shows. This task is not simple.
Winn told The Times that he has been really anxious and that the past few days have been hard. Since Winn is regarded as a blue-chip artist, his creations are in great demand and fetch a high price.
After changing his major from medicine to art, the former UC Irvine medical student, who was homeless at one point, claimed to incorporate philosophy, quantum metaphysics, and fine art into his work.
The Vietnamese refugee was named John Wayne Airport’s Art Commissioner earlier this month and is the owner of the Winn Slavin Fine Art gallery on Rodeo Drive.
Winn claimed that the loss of his art had driven him to a dark place, but that discussing the circumstance had given him some catharsis.
He remarked of each of his individual pieces, “These are my children.” I don’t have any biological children. Every piece of art I do is a child of mine.
In Winn’s Quantum Mechanics series, which examines philosophical ideas, universal truths, and attempts to provide an answer to the age-old question of why we are here, the larger of two sculptures, Homme, was the seventh and only unsold piece.
In the latter stages of the Vietnam War, Winn’s effort to immigrate to the United States at the age of nine was the main topic of the lesser Icarus Within. The sculpture was connected to the upcoming fall release of Winn’s memoir-based film Chrysalis.
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Ten years after it was reported stolen, Christiana Lewis Ulwelling, an artist from Laguna Beach, was reunited with her large-scale painting Elevate. In an effort to have an honest discussion about addiction, she is now creating a series of paintings.
Winn claimed that because of the theft’s sophistication, he suspected he was the target and that his pieces might be sold illegally.
He stated he gave police a list of people who had recently asked about his sculptures.
In his 25 years with the Anaheim Police Department, Sutter, a sergeant, reported that this was the biggest burglary he had ever witnessed.
Although we have experienced our fair share of burglaries at upscale residences, Sutter said, “I can’t recall us having this kind of crime before, involving forklifts, trucks, crews, and the sheer size of the sculptures.”
According to Sutter, authorities are requesting any video footage from nearby businesses that would be able to identify a suspect.
Sutter remarked, “I don’t know where these sculptures are.” They might be in a cargo container somewhere or in someone’s home. That’s what we’re looking for.
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The most recent of several high-profile crimes targeting the wine industry is the theft of hundreds of bottles, including roughly 75 that were valued at $1,000 or more, from a store in Los Angeles.
The sculptures will probably be discarded for their metals, according to Chris Marinello, founder of Art Recovery International, a dispute settlement and art recovery agency.
According to Marinello, scrap yards disassemble these parts into thousands of tiny fragments in order to conceal the metal’s provenance.
According to Marinello, the criminals are not very intelligent and instead see a sculpture worth millions of dollars that is more valuable to them than the raw metals like steel and bronze.
Marinello referred to the Reclining Figure, a two-ton bronze sculpture by Henry Moore that was taken from the artist’s foundation in Hertfordshire, England, in 2005.
Authorities suspect the artwork was demolished for only 1,500 pounds, despite its 3 million pound value.
Marinello remarked of the stolen Winn sculptures, “Sculptures of this magnitude cannot be sold on the market.”
