Sculptor's stolen sonnets

5:10pm Thursday 8th January 2009

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A SCULPTOR put up warning signs at her exhibition in Bradford on Avon after parts of her display were repeatedly stolen.

Artist Liz Watts, of Monkton Farleigh, was left at her wits end after several copies of a sonnet accompanying one of her terracotta sculptures were stolen.

Mrs Watts, who was exhibiting at the Fat Fowl restaurant in Silver Street, said: “I’ve never had a problem with a piece of artwork being stolen before. I was baffled.”

The exhibition, called Variations on a Torso, features numerous sculptures based on one male torso and portrayed in different mediums.

One of the sculptures has a sonnet written on the inside of a torso that can be read reflected in an adjacent mirror.

However, the accompanying card displaying the sonnet, entitled ‘Sonnet to Contemporary Art’ keeps being removed.

Mrs Watts, who trained in France before moving back to the UK about five years ago, said: “I put the card up and then went in for a coffee a couple of days later and it had gone.

“I went in and gave them another couple of copies and when I went back in they said they have all gone. I printed it off again and I wrote on it ‘please do not take the card because it is part of the artwork but they went as well.”

During the first two weeks of the exhibition six copies of the card were taken and nine have now gone in total.

Mrs Watts said: “Perhaps people are just a little more relaxed and take it to keep at home. It’s not a problem I expect here though.”

The exhibition has been running since December 1 and was due to end yesterday, although more exhibitions are planned for later this year.

It has caused mixed reviews with some claiming the artwork is too controversial.

Mrs Watts said: “It has had quite a lot of response. People are not used to seeing a male torso in that way - it’s usually women’s torsos.”

“It wasn’t intended to be controversial but some people have found it odd.”