Spanish Police: Thieves Scrap $1 Million Sculpture for $40

MADRID, Spain -- Not everyone appreciates modern art.

Spanish police say thieves behind one of Spain's largest art thefts sold one of the pieces, a sculpture valued at more than $1 million, to a scrap metal yard for about $40.

The sculpture by Basque footballer turned artist Eduardo Chillida was part of a collection of 35 prized works of Spanish art, including a Picasso drawing, stolen on Nov. 27 from a warehouse on Madrid's outskirts.

(Here's what it looks like.)

Altogether, the artwork has a value of about $6.5 million. The pieces normally appear in galleries in Madrid and Barcelona, and were being stored there overnight on their way back from an exhibition in Germany.

Security cameras showed three masked men breaking into the storage center, where the artwork was in the back of a truck locked inside a warehouse. They worked quickly, not even bothering to disable the video cameras or burglar alarms. They found the truck's keys in the glove compartment and drove away with the whole load within minutes of entering, a National Police spokesman told AOL News today.

Some of the works were insured, but some weren't. The Chillida sculpture was valued on its insurance policy for 800,000 euros -- the equivalent of about $1.05 million.

Thirty-four of the works were found Saturday in a stolen truck abandoned in another Madrid suburb. Now, police have tracked down the last remaining piece, Chillida's "Topos-IV" sculpture, which is crafted out of heavy iron and shaped like an abstract, geometric bench.

The breakthrough in the case came when police received a tip from a scrapyard owner, who said someone offloaded the sculpture at his yard for a mere 30 euros ($40), the police spokesman said. Police were able to rescue the sculpture before it was smashed down into scrap metal. The yard manager hasn't been identified, and no arrests have been made.

Of the recovered works, 33 were in "perfect condition," Spanish government spokesman Amparo Valcarce told the El Pais newspaper. "Only one suffered a small scratch on the glass that protected it, but it has not affected the work itself," he said.