'Priceless' works stolen from gallery
April 01, 2008 10:03am
AT least eight priceless artworks have been stolen in a heist at the Northern Territory Museum and Art Gallery in Darwin.
Police said security staff at the museum, in the Fannie Bay district, raised the alarm shortly before 4.30am (CST) today after finding thieves had smashed a window to get inside before fleeing with the paintings.
The stolen works include six Papunya Tula style paintings as well as a central Australian watercolour painting from the Namatjira family.
The gallery is renowned for its collection of Aboriginal art.
"At least eight paintings have been taken from the display area in the museum," Darwin Police Watch Commander Bob Harrison said.
"We've had the museum staff initially attend and they've told us that the value of the paintings is priceless, so we are carrying out further investigations.
"We're getting our forensic people and our investigators to carry out further investigation at the scene."
Heist ... an example of work by the Papunya Tula artists, Kaakuratintja (1979) by Uta Uta Tjangala, similar to those stolen from an art gallery in Darwin / Image supplied
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1 comments:
Same thing happened up here in Canada where thieves broke into the University of British Columbia's Museum of Anthropology and took some gold plated Bill Reid pieces. Bill Reid was one of the Canadian aboriginal art greats. It is feared that the thieves may have melted down the gold artifacts which would be a real shame.
Clint
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