INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) – Police in Independence have arrested two people in connection with last weekend’s theft of a 6-foot bronze statue from outside the National Frontier Trails Museum.

The Examiner reports police announced the arrests Wednesday but gave no further details.

The statue, called “Pioneer Woman,” weighed more than 1,000 pounds and cost about $35,000 when it was dedicated in March 1990.

But the manager of a Kansas City recycling business who alerted police to the suspects told The Examiner that the metal would only have been worth about $578.

Heather Hobbs said two men came to the business on Saturday with some scrap bronze that had been beaten into pieces and was unrecognizable as a statue. Hobbs said the pair left without a sale after employees questioned them about the metal.

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Information from: The Examiner, http://www.examiner.net

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