AN OBJECT at rest will stay at rest, Isaac Newton declared, unless it is acted upon by an outside force. Which must be what happened to an ivory sculpture of the great scientist that disappeared from a Canadian art gallery on 17 January.
The postcard-sized carving was one of five works stolen from the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto in a brazen daytime robbery. A second miniature portrayed Christopher Wren, architect and colleague of Newton during his London years. A total of five carvings were taken, all sculpted by the French artist David Le Marchand in the late 17th…
