When Edo Rosenberg arrived at his San Jose art studio on Tuesday, he got a big surprise — and not exactly the kind he wanted to start 2024 with.
A nine-foot-tall steel sculpture that he had bolted into the parking lot had simply vanished. All that was left were the holes where the over-600-pound artwork once stood, and the remnants of its bright, orangey rust on the asphalt surface — a loss, the longtime artist estimates, of $100,000 in sales.
“I feel lots of different emotions, not just one,” said Rosenberg, 70, standing just feet from where the artwork was snatched at his studio near the city’s airport. “Obviously, I feel sad that I lost my piece.”
It isn’t the first time a statue has been stolen in the area: Just across town in Saratoga, a statue worth half a million dollars was swiped from an estate in October. It still hasn’t been found. And in January, a statue of a warrior riding a horse that symbolizes the sister city relationship between San Jose and Pune, India, was taken out of a public park in the city and then discovered — mostly intact — by this news organization.
Ed Rosenberg stands near two of his statues at his art studio in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024. On New Year’s a statue, as tall as the beam he is standing next to, was stolen outside his studio. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
In the case of Rosenberg’s statue, police have arrested a 40-year-old suspect for the grand theft. According to authorities, the suspect chopped up the artwork and sold it to local scrapyard Alco Iron & Metal Company, which then shipped off the remains the same day.
Authorities are still investigating the scrapyard company’s involvement and said “other businesses involved in metal recycling that have traded in stolen goods have been prosecuted by the City,” referring to the company Tung Tai Group, where the horse statue was found, located just a block down from Alco on Rogers Avenue.
“(There is) no way we can tell if something is an art piece if it is cut up,” said Mike Sanchez, operations manager for Alco, in an interview on Wednesday. He said the company offered $92 to the suspected thief for the metal he brought in.
Rosenberg, an Israeli-American painter and sculptor for half a century, with works that have been featured in museums across the Bay Area, said he had been working on the stolen artwork, titled “Desert Flower,” for the last three months. The piece’s three curved steel beams were supposed to represent the landscape of a desert and dunes. He had intentionally placed the sculpture outside of his studio to add what he calls a “rusted patina” layer from the rain that would have later been permanently sealed with a clear coat material — a feature with which he has adorned some of his other sculptures.
Trained as an artist in Tel Aviv and Oakland, Rosenberg’s other works include small and large modern sculptures made out of steel, bronze and wood, some of which have been shown at Oakland’s art museum and San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Rosenberg said he provided surveillance footage to authorities on Jan. 2 of someone in a white pickup truck dismantling the stolen artwork and driving away. He then got a tip the next day about the location of the vehicle after the surveillance video aired on a local TV station. Rosenberg said he was able to locate the pickup truck and followed the driver before police were able to join them. Authorities say they obtained a confession and collected additional evidence when interviewing the suspect.
Though he has insurance for his art studio, Rosenberg expects it will not cover much for the theft of the sculpture. But he also is keeping everything in perspective, noting the conflict happening in Israel and Gaza.
Ed Rosenberg, left, speaks to Jorge Gonzalez, right, about camera footage showing who stole his statue at his art studio in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024. Gonzalez has a construction company based in a unit behind Rosenberg and has experienced theft as well. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
“In the big picture (of) life, this is a relatively small event,” he said.
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The incident is the latest in the all-too-familiar Bay Area practice of thieves stealing metals–particularly copper–which can fetch a hefty price, and selling it to scrapyards. Catalytic converters are also an often-targeted item, with their hundreds of dollars worth of rare metals, though data shows theft is trending downward for the car part. San Jose is beefing up penalties for those in possession of the device without proof of ownership.
In February, Alco’s scrapyard neighbor Tung Tai Group came under suspicion after the horse statue from the San Jose public park was found in the company’s lobby, though its owners maintain they were unaware that the artwork was stolen. No suspects were ever identified. The scrapyard has a long list of run-ins with law enforcement, including a sting operation to recover stolen copper, felony charges for defrauding state officials of millions of dollars and fines for unwittingly purchasing illegal Cuban metal. Since the horse statue was damaged when it was stolen, the city says it could cost upwards of $100,000 to replace. The statue is estimated to be worth less than $1,000.
