{"id":43162,"date":"2025-11-07T22:33:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T22:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/43162\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T22:33:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T22:33:22","slug":"how-thieves-broke-into-the-oakland-museums-archive-and-stole-1000-priceless-artifacts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/43162\/","title":{"rendered":"How thieves broke into the Oakland Museum\u2019s archive and stole 1,000 priceless artifacts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sprawling, nondescript warehouse surrounded by fencing sits in a part of Oakland known for shattered auto glass and stolen catalytic converters. At least nine times since 2012, it has been a target for criminals who have stripped copper wiring and other valuables, according to the Oakland Police Department.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is the offsite facility where the Oakland Museum of California houses an archive of more than 2 million artifacts that trace the state\u2019s rich cultural and natural history. Until last month, the priceless collection remained protected.<\/p>\n

But in the early morning of Oct. 15, at least two thieves entered through the building\u2019s HVAC system \u2014 a weak spot in its security \u2014 and made off with more than 1,000 pieces in what may be the largest art heist in California history, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the theft.<\/p>\n

The sources said the HVAC system had been looted for metal in the past. Yet the issues remained unresolved by the date of the burglary.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"At least two thieves broke into the Oakland Museum of California\u2019s offsite storage unit last month, making off with over 1,000 artifacts. | Source: Courtesy FBI and Oakland Police<\/p>\n

Details of how the theft occurred, which have not been previously reported, show vulnerabilities in the property\u2019s protection that were exploited by the thieves.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Security staff were off duty at the time of the heist, Lori Fogarty, the museum\u2019s director, told The Standard last week. A museum spokesperson declined to answer follow-up questions as to why no guards were on duty that night or whether guards typically work overnight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the Oct. 15 theft occurred, we had a number of security measures in place,\u201d said spokesperson Alexxa Gotthardt. She declined to give details but said that, at the time of the theft, museum leaders were in conversation with city agencies and the Oakland Police Department to implement enhanced security measures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ARutilated Quartz Dome Neckpiece, Florence Resnikoff | Source: Courtesy Oakland Museum of California<\/p>\n

During a visit to the facility two weeks after the burglary, The Standard witnessed guards standing outside the warehouse, which is dotted with overhead lights and security cameras.<\/p>\n

The heist itself was no \u201cOcean\u2019s 11.\u201d Video footage released<\/a> by the FBI shows two masked people, one in a black beanie and plaid long-sleeve shirt, and the other in a blue hoodie with white letters on the chest, casually traipsing through the warehouse just before 3:30 a.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Investigators believe the theft was a crime of opportunity, according to a statement from the museum. The thieves took items seemingly at random, including jewelry, engraved scrimshaw tusks, Native American baskets and tools, antique daguerreotypes, and an arbitrary collection of ephemera such as political pins.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The thieves also took laptops and cameras. They rifled through cabinets, taking metals and pearls, and wrenched open the doors of storage bays that secured Native artifacts, emptying them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TwoPair of Scrimshaw Tusks, Unidentified artist | Source: Courtesy Oakland Museum California\"AA titanium necklace by Florence Resnikoff | Source: Courtesy Oakland Museum of California<\/p>\n

Alexander Eblen, a jewelry specialist and senior vice president with Christie\u2019s in New York, said reselling stolen jewelry is nearly impossible, adding that pawn shops and antique stores, usually the next stop for thefts of this kind, are under intense scrutiny for reselling stolen items.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese things happen behind closed doors in private spaces, and depending on who knows about that, people get caught in the end because others did not keep their mouths shut,\u201d Eblen said.<\/p>\n

Sean Casey, who has lived in an apartment complex across the street from the warehouse for 10 years, said the neighborhood was a hotbed for sideshows and criminal activity until 2023, when the city installed speed bumps and closed parking lots that attracted crime at night.<\/p>\n

\"\"Thieves accessed the Oakland Museum of California\u2019s warehouse throguh it\u2019s HVAC system. | Source: Courtesy FBI and Oakland Police<\/p>\n

Still, he said, dumpsters are regularly rifled through, and catalytic converters are frequently stolen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rule is, if you have a Toyota, don\u2019t park it in the street,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anthony Amore, an art crime investigator and director of security at Boston\u2019s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum \u2014 which was famously robbed in 1990 \u2014 said he could think of only one bigger art heist in the U.S.: when five armed thieves took around 6,000 ancient coins (opens in new tab)<\/a> from Harvard\u2019s Fogg Museum in 1973.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Neither of those heists was ever solved.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information on the Oakland Museum robbery is urged to contact the OPD Burglary Section at (510) 238-3951 or\u00a0 the FBI Art Crime Team at (opens in new tab)<\/a>Tips.fbi.gov (opens in new tab)<\/a> or 1-800-CALL-FBI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sprawling, nondescript warehouse surrounded by fencing sits in a part of Oakland known for shattered auto glass…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[723,8520,2311,143,145,144,28885],"class_list":["post-43162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-crime","tag-downtown-oakland","tag-museums","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-thefts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}