Cartoon Artist’s Work Target of Thieves Again : Crime: The painting and statue taken from Chuck Jones gallery are worth $24,500. Burglary is identical to one 7 months ago.

In a burglary identical to one seven months ago, thieves smashed through the front window of the Chuck Jones Showroom on Monday, grabbed a $20,000 painting and a $4,500 statue--a duplicate of the one stolen before--and escaped.

The burglary occurred despite the supposedly shatterproof glass, the silent burglar alarm and the video camera that the owner, Jones’ daughter, had installed since the May 17 break-in.

“They obviously knew what they wanted, and it seems that it’s the same thieves because one of the things stolen was the same object taken last May,” said Craig Kausen, the owner’s son and a gallery director. “They are probably being sold on the black market.”

Jones, 80, of Corona del Mar, world famous Looney Tunes illustrator and director, said the stolen painting, of Wile E. Coyote, is a parody of Don Quixote. The stolen sculpture, also by Jones, depicts Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner. It is brass, on a marble base, and two feet high.

Police, responding to the silent alarm, arrived at the gallery in the 2900 block of East Coast Highway at 1 a.m., and found the large front window shattered and the art gone, said Sgt. Andy Gonis, spokesman for the Newport Beach Police.

Kausen said a videotape of the break-in shows that the thief needed only seconds to shatter the window and take the two artworks.

“The tape revealed a man with a beard and mustache breaking in and escaping in less than 30 seconds,” Kausen said. Police would not say what was on the tape.

Although the new window was supposed to be shatterproof even under the blow of an ax, Kausen said, the robbers broke it with a metal pipe, apparently.

“It is supposed to be impenetrable according to the advertisement,” Kausen said, “but it just wasn’t the case.” A four-foot metal pipe was found at the scene, he said.

In May, thieves escaped with the sculpture and a painting of Pepe LePew, with a combined value of more than $24,000, police said.

Last Tuesday someone threw a large piece of concrete against the gallery’s side window but it did not break, police said.

“Apparently that was a test for this robbery,” Kausen said.

Gonis said there is a strong possibility that black market thieves are responsible for the break-in, but that it could also be amateurs.

“We had a valuable statue of an elephant taken from another gallery this year and the thieves turned out to be some college guys,” Gonis said.

Mark Selwyn, vice president at Sotheby’s, an auction house in Beverly Hills, said no reputable dealer would sell stolen works as well known as Jones’.

“Whenever we get something on consignment, we research to see where it came from, and we also get weekly notifications from the police and a national publication whenever something is reported stolen,” Selwyn said.

Jones, who also created characters including Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, said Monday that he was “curious to see what kind of person does this. And I’m more curious to find out how you can determine if you have the actual artwork. They can duplicate anything today, even the Mona Lisa.”