MONTPELIER, Vt.—Vermont State Police said three people arrested Monday in the thefts of large sculptures from inside and outside of artist Joel Fisher's studio last month were after the raw materials, not the works themselves, reports the Associated Press. The 30 works stolen are valued at a total of about $1 million; authorities recovered 23 of them from a scrap metal yard in Hinesburg, Vt., which paid more than $4,000 for the 3,000 pounds of metal. Bronze contains copper, which has skyrocketed in value from about 75 cents a pound in 2004 to upwards of $3 today. "Throughout the state we've been seeing copper wire stolen. It's along the same lines," Vermont State Police Detective Lt. Jason Letourneau told the AP. The sculptures were stolen while Fisher, whose work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and the Gallery Shimada in Yamaguchi, Japan, was traveling abroad. The works were recovered when the owner of the scrap metal yard called police after seeing a newspaper report about the theft. Several other works are being returned from North Adams, Mass.