The half-dozen copper-clad landscape surfaces installed in the late ’90s in Art Eggleton Park were intended to recall Garrison Creek, a now-buried ravine that once flowed through the city.

But in recent months, the public art installation at Harbord and Montrose Sts., dubbed “Memory Banks,” has become a testament to another, somewhat baser, phenomenon: The still-hot market for stolen copper.

Ray Stukas, parks manager for Toronto and East York, said thieves made off with about 200 pounds of copper cladding, apparently ripped from the back of the planter-like installation, sometime late last year.

“I suspect (it was) late at night,” Stukas said. “They probably put a pry-bar down through the top, and then they would just leverage it toward them.”

An epidemic that stretches well beyond the city limits, in recent years copper theft has become a big concern, thanks to historically high prices for the metal, currently pegged at about US$3.25 per pound.

The difficulty of tracing the source of scrap metal has made stealing copper, as well as other building materials such as aluminum and bronze, a crime of opportunity that’s low-risk — and high-reward.

Copper wire, copper pipes and even a copper statue have all been the target of thieves in the GTA in recent years.

“It’s a worldwide problem that is driven purely and simply by supply and demand,” said Len Shaw, president of the Canadian Association of Recycling Industries. “Whether it’s a big utility or it’s an individual, people need to protect their materials in ways they didn’t in the past.”

Copper theft “is an ongoing issue” for Hydro One, costing the utility an estimated $2 million across the province each year, according to spokeswoman Tiziana Baccega-Rosa.

The utility has been working with the province and public to prevent and report the theft of copper wires from stations, Baccega-Rosa said.

“It not only poses a huge safety risk to our employees when they go out and respond,” she said, “it ultimately causes an outage.”

Seven people were charged last year for allegedly trying to make off with $50,000 worth of copper wire from a power station in Etobicoke.

“There’s been a lot of metal thefts going on for a while,” Toronto Police Staff Sgt. John McGown told the Star at the time. “Some (companies) take the initiative to do surveillance.”

Police were unable to confirm Wednesday whether the theft at Art Eggleton Park had been reported, or whether an investigation was underway.

The incident is not the parks department’s first — or last — brush with scrap metal theft. Last year, the copper sheeting on the roof was stolen from a clubhouse in Baird Park, the city’s west end, Stukas said. And just last week, he said, he received word that some of the bronze letters had been taken from the Christie Pits sign.

Councillor Mike Layton, whose ward includes Art Eggleton Park and Christie Pits, said he is working with city staff to repair the damage.

“It’s an important way of us recognizing the heritage in the community,” he said.

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However, it is not yet clear what materials will be used for those repairs. Stukas, for one, said it is time to consider “alternatives” to high-priced options.

“We can get other metals that are cheaper, like steel, and see if we can coat them with a copper-coloured paint … so that the original design is still apparent,” he said.