![\"Since](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/300110.jpg\" "\\"Since")
<\/p>\nSYDNEY, Sept 21\u00a0\u2014 Almost eight decades after Colin Wyatt stole and then vandalised thousands of precious Australian butterfly specimens, scientists are still untangling his web of deception.<\/p>\n
Between 1946 and 1947, the British ski champion and acclaimed painter charmed his way into museums in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide and pilfered 3,000 of the insects.<\/p>\n
He then painted their wings to make them look like different species and stripped labels to erase vital records about which specimen belonged to which museum.<\/p>\n
His motive remains a mystery \u2014 Wyatt later blamed the breakdown of his marriage.<\/p>\n
Wyatt died in a plane crash in 1975 and most of his collection was sold to museums \u2014 sending his mislabelled insects to all corners of the globe.<\/p>\n
Decades on, lepidopterists are still struggling to repair the damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe created such a taxonomic mess, it will never really be able to be sorted out,\u201d Museums Victoria\u2019s head of strategic collection management Maryanne McCubbin told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just get so angry. It is a despicable criminal act and it has huge scientific consequences,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had no right to steal collections that we hold on behalf of the public.\u201d<\/p>\n
The numbers are staggering.<\/p>\n
In Melbourne, Wyatt smuggled 827 lepidopterans \u2014 winged insects that include butterflies and moths \u2014 out of the museum in tin containers in a single weekend.<\/p>\n
He stole another 1,500 butterflies from a museum in Sydney as well as 603 from the Adelaide Museum.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Since the heist, museums have used taxonomists to examine butterfly collections and identify where specimen label data does not match their knowledge of that species. \u2014 AFP pic<\/p>\n
Those butterflies now must be affixed with a label designating them as having \u201cpassed through C. W. Wyatt Theft coll. 1946-1947\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2018A really vindictive theft\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a really vindictive theft,\u201d Victoria Museum collection manager of terrestrial invertebrates Simon Hinkley told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever in my lifetime have I seen something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wyatt posted the almost 3,000 stolen butterflies back to Britain before fleeing.<\/p>\n
The plundered pieces included holotypes \u2014 the original specimen from when the species was first officially described.<\/p>\n
There were also samples of rare metallic blue butterflies that often fly at the top of trees \u2014 caught by a net-wielding collector who strapped himself to tree trunks, local media reported at the time.<\/p>\n
The empty museum drawers were not discovered until later.<\/p>\n
But it did not take long for the museums to narrow down a suspect and contact London authorities.<\/p>\n
Police found Wyatt at home with the stolen Australian butterflies, part of a collection nearing 40,000, TIME magazine reported at the time.<\/p>\n
A British judge let him off with a 100-pound fine, equivalent to 5,000 pounds (RM28,405) today.<\/p>\n
The Australian specimens were repatriated, with staff from the three facilities taking more than nine days to sort the colourful fliers and return them home.<\/p>\n
From Munich to Melbourne<\/p>\n
Since the heist, museums have used taxonomists to examine butterfly collections and identify where specimen label data does not match their knowledge of that species \u2014 a never-ending puzzle.<\/p>\n
![\"Simon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/300109.jpg\" "\\"Simon")
<\/p>\n
Simon Hinkley, collection manager of terrestrial invertebrates at the Museums Victoria Research Institute, inspecting a collection of butterflies at the Melbourne Museum. \u2014 AFP pic<\/p>\n
But not all of them made it back and Wyatt\u2019s stolen butterflies are still being found.<\/p>\n
A precious holotype butterfly was discovered in Munich in 2022, mislabelled for almost eight decades.<\/p>\n
It was only after a skilled entomologist spotted the Peacock Jewel and realised that it belonged to the Melbourne facility that the butterfly was returned.<\/p>\n
The flying jewel, which has iridescent peacock-green and orange wings, will be hand-delivered to Melbourne.<\/p>\n
In another case, a lepidopterist in Canberra found a butterfly had been painted to resemble another species and mislabelled.<\/p>\n
Hinkley said he wonders how many more specimens are incorrectly labelled.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I could go back and meet him and get him before he did that, I\u2019d be keen to ask him why he did it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe damage he did was significant,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he did messes with the whole collection… you can\u2019t trust anything that has been through his hands.\u201d \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SYDNEY, Sept 21\u00a0\u2014 Almost eight decades after Colin Wyatt stole and then vandalised thousands of precious Australian butterfly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[83326,83327,49,48,83325,83328,43671,66,1856,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-159843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-australian-butterflies","9":"tag-butterfly-theft","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-colin-wyatt","13":"tag-lepidopterists","14":"tag-museums-victoria","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-sydney","17":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}