Tony Smith Designed a Stunning Sculpture. It Ended Up at the Scrapyard.
In 1964, city workers in San Antonio, not realizing that the hunk of steel in front of them was an expensive sculpture, carted Tony Smith's “Asteriskos” off to the scrapyard.
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty
“What is art?” It’s a question that has been debated from the time that man first touched charcoal to cave wall. As the modern economy developed, that question quickly became wrapped up with “what is the value of art?” a query that some have taken to its more literal extremes.
Monumental works of sculpture may seem relatively crime-proof given their sheer size and weight, but that would be to underestimate the audacity of thieves who covet these pieces for the value of their materials.
There was the 4,500-pound Henry Moore nicked for its bronze; the solid 24k-gold toilet ripped out of a palace wall; and recently the sentencing of three men in Berlin for stealing a 220-pound, Guinness-award-winning giant gold coin, the only remaining sign of which were some flecks of gold in their car.