An Inartistic Theft : Leaving Part of Sculpture Behind Makes Loot Worthless : Crime: ‘The Water Gods,’ three-piece work from a Beverly Hills park, was appraised at $250,000. But dealers say the stolen pieces have no value of their own.

They pulled and twisted the statue of the girl, but it just wouldn’t come loose. As a result, the thieves who stole two of three bronze figures at a Beverly Hills park this week now possess some impressive, but virtually worthless, art works.

The three-piece sculpture, “The Water Gods,” by the well-known Mexican sculptor Victor Salmones, was independently appraised recently at $250,000. But without the girl called “Rain,” art dealers say, the stolen pieces depicting the boys “River” and “Sea” have no real value.

“We’ll just sit and wait for awhile,” said Babbs Shoemaker, director of the Victor Salmones gallery in Beverly Hills. “Maybe we’ll find them in a dump or something. How else are they going to hide them?”

The heist from Maltz Park on Sunset Boulevard has baffled police and puzzled art dealers. Beverly Hills police say the sculptures were probably removed from their pedestals sometime Saturday or Sunday night. The statues were discovered missing by a park official Monday morning.

It remains unclear exactly how the sculptures were taken from their bolted stands, which surround a water fountain in the small corner park, or how they were carted off. Police say each sculpture weighs at least 150 pounds.

“The girl alone takes three men to lift,” said Travis Hansson, vice president of the late artist’s gallery on Wilshire Boulevard. “So I would guess there were at least that many involved.”

Beverly Hills Police Lt. Robert Curtis said detectives don’t know if the heist was the work of art thieves, but gallery officials doubted that it was an act of vandalism. Two other Salmones sculptures were stolen from public buildings in Texas during the last few years, but there appears to be no connection between the thefts except that the works were all on public display, gallery officials said.

Salmones, whose bronze figures are in public buildings in 42 countries around the world, lent “The Water Gods” to the city before he died of cancer last year. Shoemaker said that in addition to the artworks “Force” in the UCLA Sculpture Garden and “Aquarius” at Metromedia Square in Hollywood, there are at least 50 Salmones pieces in collections in Southern California--including that of Beverly Hills City Councilman Maxwell Salter.

Salmones’ associate, E. G. McGrath, flew in from Acapulco on Wednesday to assess the damage to the Maltz Park sculpture. The thieves broke part of the foot on the “Rain” statue and bent it at a sharp angle in their attempt to tear the piece from its metal bolt.

“Either it was a random art theft or a collector may have commissioned the theft,” McGrath said, “because whoever took it sure went to an awful lot of trouble.”

Shoemaker said he is hopeful that when word of the theft gets out, the thieves will realize they made a mistake and return it. But police are skeptical the sculptures will turn up anywhere soon.

“These sculptures are pretty distinctive,” Curtis said. “I doubt if you’ll see it in the Rose Bowl swap meet or anything like that.”