"It is really appalling.... They clearly weren't amateurs. I don't know how they managed to dismantle and cart away 2.5 tons of steel," Tumarkin told public radio.
The massive installation had been erected near Kibbutz Hatzerim in Israel's southern Negev desert, media reported.
Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld confirmed that a monument had been stolen from a sculpture park in southern Israel, where a smaller piece of art had also been pilfered a week ago.
"Police are investigating down in the south who could possibly be behind this act. In general there seems to be a trend of stealing metal and different types of steel," he said.
Thieves also recently made off with a giant work of art weighing more than half a ton, sculpted by Noam Rabinovitch.
© 2005 Agence France-Presse
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