Elements of a lead work by contemporary art star Anselm Kiefer were stolen Thursday from a warehouse in Seine-et-Marne, causing damage of one million euros, the Meaux prosecutor’s office said on Friday. . Between 2:30 a.m. and 3 a.m. on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, burglars entered a warehouse in Croissy-Beaubourg belonging to the German artist based in France, reported Meaux prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Bladier, confirming information from Le Parisien.
Remaining there for around twenty minutes before being chased away by the security service, they attacked a work of art placed in an outdoor parking lot and protected by a solid fence. “The video surveillance showed the presence of four individuals who crossed the parking lot fence, entered the site, then cut the steel mesh surrounding the work, before recovering the lead books composing it,” declared to AFP the prosecutor. “The damage was estimated by the artist at more than one million euros,” added the public prosecutor, who entrusted the investigation to the Meaux judicial police.
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Known for his creations in lead and his exploration of post-war German identity, the 78-year-old visual artist is notably exhibited at the Pantheon and the Louvre. Several burglaries have already targeted Anselm Kiefer’s workshops in the past, generally seeking more to recover metal for resale than for the artistic value of his works.
Its Croissy-Beaubourg warehouse was the scene of a previous damage to a work in 2016, causing damage of 1.5 million euros, then was targeted by a new burglary attempt in 2019. The work of Anselm Kiefer is at the center of a documentary by filmmaker Wim Wenders, presented out of competition at the last Cannes Film Festival and released in October in French cinemas.