Three tons, $2.1 million in artwork burglarized from warehouse

The two towering sculptures comprising thousands of pounds of bronze and stainless steel took artist and filmmaker Sir Daniel Winn more than a year to complete.

They vanished in a weekend.

Police believe that on June 14 or 15 at least one thief made off with both “Icarus Within” and “Quantum Mechanics: Homme,” — sculptures valued at a combined $2.1 million — from a warehouse in Anaheim Hills. Other artwork and valuables inside the warehouse that would have been easier to move were untouched. Authorities have scant details about the heist.

“Unfortunately, we have little information but we are investigating,” Anaheim Police Sgt. Matt Sutter said.

The life-sized “Quantum Mechanics: Homme” artwork, composed of lucite, bronze and stainless steel, depicts a winged and horned man and was featured in the award-winning short film “Creation” in 2022. It’s valued at $1.8 million.

A second Winn piece, “Icarus Within,” based partially on the sculptor’s chaotic childhood escape from Vietnam, is a steel and bronze sculpture that also stands 8 feet tall, weighs a ton, and is valued at $350,000.

Both sculptures were being stored in a temporary facility and were last seen by warehouse workers in Anaheim Hills on Saturday, according to the Anaheim Police Department.

When the workers returned to the facility Monday, both pieces were missing, according to police.

Winn believes the pieces may have been stolen by an unscrupulous collector while an art recovery expert suspects the two sculptures will be destroyed for scrap metal.

“Typically these sculptures, when we do exhibitions, take about a dozen men and two forklifts to move it and a flatbed or a truck to carry it,” Winn said. “This is not an easy task.”

Winn told The Times that the last few days have been stressful and that his anxiety has been “through the roof.” Winn is considered a blue-chip artist, meaning his work is highly sought after and has a high monetary value.

The former UC Irvine medical student, who was once homeless after switching his major from medicine to art, said he blends fine art, quantum metaphysics and philosophy into his work.

The Vietnamese refugee owns the Winn Slavin Fine Art gallery on Rodeo Drive and was appointed earlier this month as Art Commissioner for John Wayne Airport.

The loss of his art has pushed Winn “to a dark place,” he said, though he’s found some catharsis in talking about the situation.

“These are my children,” he said of each of his individual works. “I have no physical, organic children. Every artwork I create is my child.”

The larger of two sculptures, “Homme,” was the seventh and only unsold work in Winn’s Quantum Mechanics series, which explores philosophical concepts, universal truths and tries to answer the enduring question: why are we here?

The smaller “Icarus Within” focused on Winn’s struggle around the age of 9 in emigrating to the United States in the final days of the Vietnam War. The sculpture was tied to Winn’s movie “Chrysalis,” based on his memoirs, that is supposed to premier this fall.

Winn said the level of sophistication in the theft led him to suspect he was targeted and that his pieces may be on the black market.

He turned over a list of individuals who have recently inquired about his sculptures to police, he said.

Sutter, the Anaheim Police sergeant, said this is the largest burglary he’s seen in his 25 years with the department.

“We’ve had our share of high-end homes that were burglarized, but this type of crime, involving forklifts, trucks, crews and the sheer size of the sculptures is something I can’t remember us having before,” Sutter said.

Sutter said investigators are asking businesses near the warehouse for any footage that could help them identify a suspect.

“I have no idea where these sculptures are,” Sutter said. “They could be in somebody’s house or in a shipping container somewhere. That’s what we’re trying to find out.”

Chris Marinello, founder of the dispute resolution and art recovery service named Art Recovery International, said the sculptures will likely be scrapped for their metals.

Marinello said scrap yards tear apart such works into thousands of small pieces to cloak the metal’s origin.

“Unfortunately, the criminals are not that bright and they don’t see artwork but, instead, a sculpture worth millions that is more valuable to them for the raw metals like steel and bronze,” Marinello said.

Marinello pointed to a two-ton Henry Moore bronze sculpture, known as the Reclining Figure, stolen from the artist’s foundation in Hertfordshire, England in 2005.

The piece was valued at 3 million pounds, but authorities believe it was scrapped for just 1,500 pounds.

“You can’t sell sculptures of this magnitude on the market,” Marinello said of the Winn’s stolen pieces.