Fiberglass statues replace bronze busts stolen in Tehran

TEHRAN, July 4 (MNA) -- The Tehran Municipality has replaced 6 of the 11 bronze statues stolen in the city with fiberglass replicas over the past week.

Busts of Mohammad-Hossein Sani’khatam, Mohammad Moin, Rahman Dadman, Sattar Khan, Baqer Khan, and an abstract sculpture have been installed in the places of the originals, the Tehran Municipality Beautification Organization director Javad Shushtari said on Saturday.

All the sculptures, except the abstract statue that had been made by the deceased Iranian sculptor Mohammad-Ali Madadi, have been recreated in their original dimensions by the artists who had made the originals, he explained.

He said that the municipality would pursue its complaint about the issue of the thefts with the judicial authorities.

“If the original statues are recovered, they will replace the replicas,” Shushtari noted.

Bronze busts of Iranian luminaries and several other sculptures situated in local neighborhoods and parks in Tehran have vanished over the past four months.

The statues were presumably stolen for the scrap value of the metal used in making them, Tehran Municipality Statue Office director Mojtaba Musavi had said earlier.

However, some analysts believe that there are political and ideological reasons behind the disappearance of the statues.