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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Oakland police and the FBI Art Crime Team are investigating the case. No one has been arrested in connection with the case.<\/p>\n
The Oakland Museum of California, or\u00a0OCMA, 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.<\/p>\n
Police did not say where the storage facility was located.<\/p>\n
Museum CEO and Executive Director Lori\u00a0Fogarty said the theft was “a brazen act that robs the public of our state’s cultural heritage.”<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n