600-pound metal sculpture in San Jose gets stolen and destroyed

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) – A San Jose artist is in shock after someone stole and destroyed his 600-pound metal art sculpture on New Year’s Day. 

“How can I say this? It was a shock. I was definitely upset,” said the artist, Edo Rosenberg. 

Rosenberg says when he pulled up to his studio in San Jose Tuesday morning, his 600-pound metal sculpture bolted to the concrete was gone.

Surveillance camera footage caught a white truck pulling up to the studio in broad daylight. Its driver removed the bolts and used a chain hoist to lift the sculpture into his truck.  

Rosenberg says he went to a local scrap yard in hopes of finding his sculpture. That’s when he says he found out his art piece is gone forever.

“They have a receipt to this guy for $120 dollars for 1,200 pounds of metal… and your piece is gone, that was it,” he said.

Rosenberg says he left the sculpture outside overnight to treat the metal with acid. Once finished, the sculpture would have been worth roughly $100,000.

Now he says he’ll think twice before leaving his work outside. Police arrested 40-year-old James Cox in connection to the theft.