Iran: Who steals bronze statues? · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

It seems Iran is the land of surprises and there seems to be no end for them. International and Iranian media report that religious motives appear to be behind the recent theft of 11 bronze statues of Iranian national heroes.
These statues include  Mohammad Moin statue, a prominent literature scholar, (photo, right, from Mehr news site) and Sattar Khan‘s statue, a key figure in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution , (photo, left, from Mehr News) that have been stolen from the capital's public parks.
Mokhtasatehonar, says  [fa] with irony that:
stealing statues in such numbers is becoming an ordinary thing and people started to get used to that…Mayor officials instead of stopping this robbery explaining to media and reporters that it is a group of thieves with high ability and planning…as if Iranians did not understand that stealing a 400kg statue in daylight is not a work of ordinary thieves.
Another blogger, Ebhamlink, has published the photographs of the statues that have not been stolen yet.
And Noghrei Nevesht writes [fa]
probably these statues have not been stolen but a religious leader ordered they got collected from public spaces. If they wanted to do that in a transparent way, people will probably protest and riot. Now it is done in the name of robbery.
The blogger wonders whether they have been stolen or made to “disappear.” Either way, it is a sad story.