Stolen Bronze Sculptures Return Home

Six stolen sculptures by Peter Gehring resurfaced three weeks later, unharmed.

On the night of September 12, during Germany's Day of Open Monuments, six bronze sculptures by Peter Gehring (1901–2001), an architect, artist and trained opera singer, disappeared from the garden of the Munich museum devoted to his work, in the Obermenzing district. The thieves got in through a garden gate; each sculpture, 15 to 25 centimeters tall and mounted on a granite base, is valued at roughly €20,000. The sculptor's widow discovered the theft the next morning.

Three weeks later, on October 1, all six works turned up undamaged near the family home. Police believe press coverage and the ongoing search pressured the thief into returning them.