The 1940 work by renowned artist Carl Milles was ripped from its pedestal in front of the Emigrant House in this city.

The director of Smaland Cultural Park, Lennart Johansson, stated that the thieves likely intend to melt it down to sell the metal.

The piece is too recognizable for the black market for art, the expert affirmed, warning of a wave of thefts of outdoor sculptures in the Nordic country.

Johansson emphasized that, although bronze is less valuable than copper, this crime shows the growing audacity of organized crime in a European nation and underscored that the theft follows the recent theft of a sculpted head in the same region, which was recovered after 25 years.

The Millesgarden Museum in Stockholm holds the original molds, which would allow for the eventual replacement of the piece, a symbol of the Swedish diaspora to America.

Carl Milles, who died in 1955, is considered one of Sweden’s leading modernist sculptors, internationally renowned for his monumental fountains.

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