Following a theft on the Oakland Museum of California‘s (OMCA) off-site storage facility earlier this month, the museum launched a press release on Friday afternoon.
On October 15, round 3:30 a.m., a thief or group of thieves broke into the museum’s off-site storage facility, taking greater than 1,000 objects. Quite a lot of extra particulars surrounding the case had been initially withheld, in order to not affect the Oakland Police Division and the FBI’s Artwork Crime Workforce’s ongoing investigation. Now, with their approval, the museum has issued a press release on the occasions.
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“Based mostly on present findings, investigators imagine this was a criminal offense of alternative, not a focused theft,” OCMA’s assertion reads. “There is no such thing as a indication that the perpetrators particularly recognized the power as museum storage or sought specific artworks or artifacts. As an alternative, it seems they gained entry and took objects that had been most simply obtainable.”
The museum confirmed that the burglars took off with six Native American baskets, a number of Nineteenth-century scrimshaw objects, a variety of daguerreotypes, modernist metalwork jewellery items, and historic memorabilia resembling political pins, award ribbons, and memento tokens.
Of specific concern are the stolen Native American baskets. The linked tribe has requested that their identify not be public and that the museum not launch any extra particulars in regards to the baskets.
“This can be a loss not just for OMCA, however for the broader neighborhood,” mentioned Lori Fogarty, govt director and CEO of OMCA, in a press release. “The Museum takes its duty to steward California’s historical past and cultural legacy with the utmost seriousness and stays dedicated to recovering the stolen objects and making certain their continued look after future generations.”
The 100,000-square-foot warehouse holds greater than 2 million historic artifacts, lots of which have been donated to the OMCA.
Anybody with info on the theft ought to contact the Oakland Police Division’s housebreaking part (at 510-238-3951) or the FBI Artwork Crime Workforce (at ideas.fbi.gov or 1-800-CALL-FBI).
