According to authorities, a $1.5 million Buddha statue that was taken from a Los Angeles art museum has been found.
According to FOX 11, the Los Angeles Police Department reported that 44-year-old Justin Livick was detained on Saturday and charged with receiving stolen merchandise from the Barakat Gallery.
Who stole the statue from the Barakat Gallery early on September 18 is still a mystery.
According to jail records, Livick was arrested on Saturday night and released early on Sunday.
On September 18, at about 3:45 a.m., the monument was taken, according to the police.
The statue, according to the Barakat Gallery, dates to Japan’s Edo Period, which lasted from 1603 to 1867.
According to surveillance footage, the suspect entered the gallery through a driveway gate and moved the statue onto a truck in a matter of 25 minutes using a dolly.
The director of the Los Angeles branch of Barakat Gallery told theartnewspaper.com that museum officials were “shocked” that a single burglar managed to steal the statue given its size and weight.
“We’re all very puzzled,” Henderson told the website. “Obviously this is a high-valued piece, it’s important, and aesthetically it’s a very interesting and unique item. It’s clearly a temple sculpture from that period, and the size and the execution make it a very rare item, so it’s not something you’d find on the market, which means it’s not something that could be resold easily.”
“We’re still trying to figure out what the motive was and what the thief thinks they’re going to do with this piece,” he said.
The statue contains an inscription, when translated reading “Produced by Tadazou Iinuma, first year of Shouho, Kanoe. Prayed for and requested by Ryozen, master of Shingon religious party, Dainichi-Nyorai, Yudo-no-San Temple, of the highest social class.”
