Three large steel horses statues placed in a meadow along the N206 near Valkenburg were stolen last week, and council authorities and police have asked people to be on the lookout for them, local broadcaster Omroep West reports.

Police think the theft of the three more than life size horses, made from 2.2 centimetre thick steel, took place last Thursday night.

‘It is a great shame that people have removed this work of art illegally,’ Katwijk official Jacco Knape told the broadcaster. ‘The horses are symbolic of the tie between Valkenburg and its horse fair,’ Knape said, ‘and it is also a family of horses which reflects the Valkenburg friendliness.’

The biggest horse is 3.5 metres tall and 3.5 metres long. ‘How they managed it I don’t know,’ Knape said,’ but we want to know where they are and we want them back.’

The horses are not the only public art to be stolen. In Bergen op Zoom seven of the 12 bronze goats placed on the town’s main boulevard were taken, five of which were later offered for sale on the internet.

The theft of public art, in bronze in particular, is on the rise, because of the crisis and high metal prices, the government cultural heritage department RCE said.