SHORT TAKES : Calder Mobile Stolen in N.Y.

An Alexander Calder mobile with a $1.4-million price tag has been stolen from a Manhattan gallery, authorities said today. The 30-pound mobile, “White Flag,” was stolen at 6 p.m. Sunday from Perls Galleries on the Upper East Side, police said. The gallery owner, Klaus Perls, discovered the burglary Monday morning. Perls, 78, was Calder’s exclusive agent for 22 years, until the artist died in 1976. Police said the burglars entered the six-story building through a skylight. “White Flag” was hanging by a cable just beneath the skylight, over a stairwell. The aluminum mobile, created in 1962, suspends triangular flags--one white, the rest black--on graceful stems. It is 4 feet high and more than 8 feet wide but comes apart for shipping.