A thief or crew of thieves recently carried out one of the largest art heists in California history, breaking into a storage facility for the Oakland Museum of California under cover of darkness and making off with more than 1,000 precious artifacts.
Oakland police said the burglary took place just before 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 15, which is four days before robbers stole a trove of priceless Napoleonic jewels from the the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Items stolen from the Oakland museum included Native American baskets, jewelry, laptops, historic photographs and intricately carved ivory tusks. The Oakland Police Department is working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Art Crime Team to investigate the heist and retrieve the missing artifacts.
“The theft that occurred represents a brazen act that robs the public of our state’s cultural heritage,” said museum Chief Executive Lori Fogarty in a statement. “Most of these objects have been given to the Museum by generous donors.”
The Oakland Museum of California is home to more than 2 million objects dedicated to telling the story of California through collections of art, history and natural science. It features more than 110,000 square feet of gallery space across a seven-acre campus.
The storage facility targeted by thieves is off-site; authorities did not disclose the address or how long it took for staff to discover the items were missing.
The FBI’s Art Crime team is a highly specialized unit of 20 agents trained in investigation theft, fraud and forgery of artwork as well as cultural-property trafficking.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Oakland police at (510) 238-3951 or submit a tip to the Art Crime Team online or by calling (800) 225-5324.
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