TEHRAN // City officials say footage from a traffic control camera may help police find those responsible for the disappearance of at least 11 large bronze statues from public spaces in Tehran over the past month.
Speculation has led some to believe the cause of the thefts is obvious: the thieves must be ripping the statues from their plinths and selling the bronze to scrap-metal dealers for cash. But Tehran's mayor, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, did not rule out the possibility of motivation other than the economic.
"There's a possibility that the issue is more complicated" than ordinary theft, he was quoted by Fars News Agency as saying yesterday. He did not elaborate but others have speculated that religious conservatives could be responsible.
"The footage and other investigations by Tehran municipality will greatly help to resolve the riddle of the theft of the statues," Mohammad Javad Shooshtari, a municipality official, said.
Passers-by first noticed the disappearance of the statue of Ostad Shahriyar, a poet held in high esteem by both Farsi and Azeri speakers in Iran, from the garden of the City Theatre of Tehran soon after the Iranian new year holiday about a month ago.
Since then, 10 other bronze statues of historical figures have vanished from parks and streets across the city. They include statues of two heroes of Iran's constitutional revolution of 1906, a liberal religious thinker whose ideas largely influenced the Islamic revolution of 1979, a number of other contemporary literary figures and artists, as well as that of a mother and her child.
If the statues, valued at 1.1 billion rials (Dh408,000), are not recovered, replacements will be installed, Seyed Mohammad Hadi Ayazi, a Tehran municipality spokesman, was quoted by the Isna news agency as saying.
The city is waiting for the completion of investigations before commissioning new statues, Mojtaba Mousavi, the head of the municipality office in charge of city sculptures, said. "We are still shocked by the thefts. They have affected the execution of our projects.
"Evidence directs us to believe that the thieves are after bronze statues and other statues are not in threat," Mr Mousavi added.
While city officials claim the thefts were motivated by the relatively high value of the metal used in the statues, some citizens and artists are sceptical about this explanation.
"It is very unlikely that the statues were taken for their metal. These statues weighed several hundred kilos. It takes several men, electrical equipment for severing the statue from its pedestals and a crane to remove each statue to a lorry. This can't go unnoticed in a city like Tehran - even in the middle of the night," a resident of the city said.
"Ordinary thieves will not put themselves in danger nine times when they could steal one piece of expensive jewellery in one burglary. There were so many jewellery shops they could rob in one go with much lesser risk of being caught and for a much bigger reward," he said.
Jafar Najibi, a sculptor, whose statue disappeared from a main boulevard in western Tehran last week, told Mehr News Agency he found it difficult to believe the value of scrap bronze could be the only motivation for the theft of the statues. The selling price of the statue for its scrap metal does not justify the costs of the operation and the risk, the artist said.
Hiring a crane to install his 140kg statue on its pedestal had cost one million rials, whereas scrap bronze could sell for only about 30,000 rials per kilo, or about four million rials for the statue, he said.
Fingers have been pointed at religious extremists who might have stolen the statues on the grounds that building and displaying statues is religiously prohibited.
"It is possible that the thieves were against sculpting and that there is a group that opposes adornment of the city with statues," Mr Najibi told the Mehr News Agency.
Kalemeh, the official website of the opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, has backed the theory of involvement of religious extremists. "The issue [of the involvement] of self-appointed vigilantes who issue their own religious edicts and carry them out should not be overlooked," it was said on Kalemeh on the weekend.
Mr Mousavi is a painter and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, is a celebrated sculptor whose iconic statue titled Mother adorned a square of the same name in Tehran until a few months ago when it was removed by city officials after protests following the election of the president.
Many high-ranking Shiite clerics prohibit depiction of human and animal forms, whether in painting, drawing or sculpture, on the grounds that making their likeness is an imitation of the work of God or because statues may prompt idolatry.
Vigilantes have in a few cases destroyed statues displayed publicly or demanded their removal. In 2002 during a Friday prayer sermon in Tehran, a hardline cleric called on city officials of Isfahan to drop plans for the installation of a statue of Kaveh Ahangar. Kaveh was a mythical figure who led a popular uprising of Iranians against a foreign tyrant.
In Iran, there is no official ban on sculptures of human or animal forms, and sculpture is even taught in universities along with other genres of fine art. Statues and busts of national figures as well as abstract forms are displayed in public spaces such as parks and squares in many Iranian cities.
However, some pieces were removed following the Islamic revolution for their nudity or depiction of the female form. Others were Islamicised by remodelling them to cover hair or bare legs and arms.
@Email:msinaiee@thenational.ae
THE SPECS
Range Rover Sport Autobiography Dynamic
Engine: 5.0-litre supercharged V8
Transmission: six-speed manual
Power: 518bhp
Torque: 625Nm
Speed: 0-100kmh 5.3 seconds
Price: Dh633,435
On sale: now
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The%20specs
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
ABU DHABI ORDER OF PLAY
Starting at 10am:
Daria Kasatkina v Qiang Wang
Veronika Kudermetova v Annet Kontaveit (10)
Maria Sakkari (9) v Anastasia Potapova
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Ons Jabeur (15)
Donna Vekic (16) v Bernarda Pera
Ekaterina Alexandrova v Zarina Diyas
The%20specs%20
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
THE%20SPECS
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Abu Dhabi race card
5pm Abu Dhabi Fillies Classic Prestige | Dh110,000 | 1,400m
5.30pm Abu Dhabi Colts Classic Prestige | Dh110,000 | 1,400m
6pm Abu Dhabi Championship Listed | Dh180,000 | 1,600m
6.30pm Maiden | Dh80,000 | 1,600m
7pm Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap | Dh80,000 | 1,400m
7.30pm Handicap (TB) |Dh100,000 | 2,400m
Scorebox
Dubai Hurricanes 31 Dubai Sports City Eagles 22
Hurricanes
Tries: Finck, Powell, Jordan, Roderick, Heathcote
Cons: Tredray 2, Powell
Eagles
Tries: O’Driscoll 2, Ives
Cons: Carey 2
Pens: Carey
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
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Price: From Dh1,350,000
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How does ToTok work?
The calling app is available to download on Google Play and Apple App Store
To successfully install ToTok, users are asked to enter their phone number and then create a nickname.
The app then gives users the option add their existing phone contacts, allowing them to immediately contact people also using the application by video or voice call or via message.
Users can also invite other contacts to download ToTok to allow them to make contact through the app.
Company: Instabug
Founded: 2013
Based: Egypt, Cairo
Sector: IT
Employees: 100
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Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Veere di Wedding
Dir: Shashanka Ghosh
Starring: Kareena Kapoo-Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar and Shikha Talsania
Verdict: 4 Stars
Bridgerton%20season%20three%20-%20part%20one
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirectors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVarious%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Nicola%20Coughlan%2C%20Luke%20Newton%2C%20Jonathan%20Bailey%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E3%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
The%20National%20selections
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South and West: From a Notebook
Joan Didion
Fourth Estate