Thieves stole more than 1,000 historic artifacts from the Oakland Museum of California’s off-site storage facility on October 15. The Oakland Police Department, in collaboration with the FBI’s Art Crime Team, is investigating the heist, which occurred just before 3:30 a.m. The stolen items include Native American baskets, jewelry, laptops, and other historic artifacts.
Lori Fogarty, the museum’s executive director and CEO, expressed her dismay, stating, “The theft that occurred represents a brazen act that robs the public of our state’s cultural heritage.”
Most of the stolen objects were donated to the museum by generous patrons. The museum staff discovered the burglary on the morning of October 16, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
The heist is one of the largest in California’s history, according to KTVU.
The Oakland Police Department urges anyone with information to contact their burglary section at (510) 238-3951 or the FBI Art Crime Team at 1-800-CALL-FBI. The museum hopes to recover the stolen items and restore them to the public.
News of the heist comes as authorities in France arrested five more individuals accused of being involved with the brazen theft of more than $100 million worth of historic jewels from the Louvre Museum.
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