Burglars stole more than 1,000 items, including jewelry and historic artifacts, from the Oakland Museum of California this month in a major art heist now being probed by a special FBI team, according to authorities.
Someone broke into an off-site storage facility for the Oakland museum around 3:30 a.m. Oct. 15 and left with hundreds of collection items, including Native American baskets and other artwork donated to the museum, the Oakland Police Department said Wednesday.
Oakland police and the FBI Art Crime Team are investigating the case. No one has been arrested in connection with the case.
The Oakland Museum of California, or OCMA, offers collections of art, history and natural science inside a 110,00 square-foot gallery on a seven-acre campus situated between Downtown Oakland and Lake Merritt.
Police did not say where the storage facility was located.
Museum CEO and Executive Director Lori Fogarty said the theft was “a brazen act that robs the public of our state’s cultural heritage.”
“We are working in close partnership with the City of Oakland, the Oakland Police Department, and the FBI to see that these objects are returned,” she said.
Federal agents investigating the case are from a highly specialized unit of roughly 20 agents who investigate art-related matters across the U.S., including art theft, fraud, forgery, “or, in this case, antiquities and cultural property trafficking,” according to Oakland police.
This article originally published at More than 1,000 items stolen from Oakland Museum of California storage facility in huge art heist.