The Oakland Police Department announced Wednesday that it is working with the FBI’s Art Crime Team to investigate a burglary from the Oakland Museum of California’s storage facility two weeks ago.
Shortly before 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 15, a suspect or suspects broke into the museum’s off-site collection storage facility, according to a press release from OPD. They stole more than 1,000 items, including jewelry, laptops, Native American baskets, daguerreotypes, and other artifacts, police said.
Speaking with reporters at the museum Wednesday afternoon, Lori Fogarty, executive director and CEO of the museum, said staff at the storage facility were first made aware of the burglary when they arrived at work the early morning of Oct. 16. There were no staff members at the facility when the burglary took place, though according to Fogarty, the building has security cameras and alarms.
“We think that this was more of a crime of opportunity than a strategic strike,” Fogarty said, noting that most of the stolen items were small and ranged from historical objects to art pieces.
The facility stores a large number of items in the museum’s collection. Many of its objects are made available to researchers, scholars, and other institutions, according to Fogarty.
Fogarty declined to provide the exact location of the storage facility.
The museum’s collection staff is working with insurance providers to determine the total value of the stolen artifacts. The museum is also evaluating additional security measures at the facility.
Asked why the museum and law enforcement are announcing the burglary two weeks after it happened, Fogarty said they did not want to jeopardize the investigation.
“Stealing from a museum is a federal crime,” she said. “We have engaged deeply in the last few days with both OPD and the FBI, and they let us know that now was the moment to share this news with the public.”
Fogarty said the city of Oakland is also involved in the investigation, since the museum’s collection of more than 2 million artifacts is owned by the city. She added that she feels optimistic about the investigation by the FBI and OPD.
“We’re hopeful with some of the information they’ve shared with us so far, and that they have a pretty good sense of what might have happened,” she said.
This isn’t the first time OMCA was burglarized. In late 2012 and in early 2013, the museum was burglarized in two separate incidents. Andre Taray Franklin, the suspect in both incidents, was sentenced in 2014 to four years in prison for knowingly possessing and selling an $800,000 Gold Rush-era jewelry box that was stolen from the Oakland museum, among other items.
The museum heist in Oakland happened four days before a burglary of France’s Louvre Museum, where four thieves made off with over $100 million in jewels that belonged to Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III.
Credit: Courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California
Credit: Courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California
Credit: Courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California
Credit: Courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California
Credit: Courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California
Credit: Courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California
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