When the owner of a stone sculpture shop Tien Hieu in the stone sculpture village of Non Nuoc in the Central province of Da Nang reported a hand was missing from his stone statue of a young lady, police found that a fan of the Ancient Greek statue Venus de Milo was the culprit.
The statue,“ Thieu nu om hoa” (Young girl carries flowers), was being displayed on the flower street Bach Dang, in front of the Han market, in Da Nang during Tet holidays. Early Saturday morning, the owner of the statue noticed one hand of his statue had been cut off.
The hand thief, Huynh Ngoc La Quang, 47, of Hai Chau district, said the statue worth VND35 million (US$1,800) was not beautiful enough with two hands, so he removed one. In his mind the secret of women’s beauty lay in the Venus de Milo’s missing arms so he took a hammer to the statue to make her more like Venus.
At present, the police at Hai Chau 1 ward are finishing the profile of Quang and will forward it to their seniors for further investigation.
