As the article said, the police searched scrap metal yards... I’ve heard of copper being stolen and other metals and thieves getting paid for the “scap metal”...
But, who knows what the motive was until we hear more from the police now that they’ve got the perpetrators of the crime.
We’ll probably find out that these men had histories that should have had them in prison. Instead they were free to steal and seriously damage a historic artifact.
They probably originally figured they sell it to some neo-Nazi collector for a high price. But the fact that it was in 3 pieces when it was found suggests that they may have panicked over the difficulty of concealing it while the country was in state of emergency over it, and realized that selling it as a historic artifact was a pipe dream. I’m just glad police found it before they melted it down to avoid getting caught with it.
Earlier story said it was wrought iron.
It could be political. But also, it could be stupid metal thieves.