A low-life thief swiped high art from a City Hall Park exhibit, cops said on Thursday.
The crook made off with a chunk of a $6,000 copper statue — created by a provocative Vietnamese sculptor — on Tuesday, police sources said.
The 40-pound installation featured a chain-link design by the politically-charged artist Danh Vo. It was on loan to the city from the renowned Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris, sources said.
The art was set to be unveiled in the leafy space near City Hall on Saturday — but the thief struck while workers were setting it up, the sources said.
Vo, whose his family fled South Vietnam in a homemade boat, often creates contemporary art with social and political themes.
He has exhibitions in Germany, Portugal and China — and won the esteemed Hugo Boss prize in 2012.
“We can confirm that a small part of the artwork disappeared from the park during installation, and a police investigation is underway,” a rep from the Public Art Fund said.