No arrests in ‘brazen’ Oakland Museum artifacts heist

No arrests have been made a day after Oakland police announced that burglars had stolen more than 1,000 items from an Oakland Museum of California storage facility earlier this month.

The break-in occurred in the off-site storage facility around 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 15, police said in a news release. Police don’t know how many people may have been involved in the burglary. The FBI has joined Oakland police in the investigation.

“We believe this is a crime of opportunity, it was not a strategic art heist,” Alexxa Gotthardt, a museum spokesperson, said Thursday. “We believe that they broke in and were surprised by what they found.”

Most of the items stolen were political pins, award ribbons, and other ephemera, Gotthardt said. Other stolen items included modernist metalwork jewelry and some daguerreotypes. The burglars also took scrimshaw works, which are carved ivory objects of 19th century etchings on marine mammal bones, teeth and tusks. Additionally, six Native American baskets were stolen. 

According to published reports, Lori Fogarty, the museum’s director and CEO, told reporters on Wednesday that the facility was not staffed but did have security cameras and alarms.

Oakland Councilmember Charlene Wang said in a phone interview Thursday, “I’m not aware that we have surveillance footage either.”

Reached Thursday, Gotthardt declined to share additional details of the theft, citing the police investigation. She confirmed that the stolen items are covered by insurance.

Most of the objects came to the museum from donors, Fogarty said in the release. 

“The theft that occurred represents a brazen act that robs the public of our state’s cultural heritage,” she said.

Wang, whose district includes the museum, said the theft highlights the need to beef up public safety and add more Flock camera readers in the city.

“This is why we do need Flock cameras, and we also need more people to enroll in our Police Department, because even though reported crime is going lower, we still have a ways to go and it’s especially tragic when our cultural institutions get targeted like this,” Wang said.

‘So many questions’

With Native American Heritage month coming up in November, the theft is especially sad, said Istu Yee Montes, cultural programs manager at Intertribal Friendship House in Oakland. Montes is helping organize a special private event for the Native American community on Saturday at the museum.

“It’s bothersome and I have so many questions,” Montes said. “Is it targeted in retaliation for the events coming up in honor of the Heritage Month? And then, what are people doing with these things, like in the black market. Where does it go?”

Montes, whose people are the Piikani from the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, spoke to her frustration about the handling of Native American artifacts by universities and museums that find and display them.

“They still have a lot of different tribes’ artifacts that they haven’t returned, and they’ve forced ownership over it. They belong to ancestors of living relatives,” said Montes, who feels the objects should be cared for by families, returned to the tribes, or put in museums run by Indigenous people. 

Montes said she has seen tribal members fall on hard times and end up pawning their historic items.

“People will lose precious heirlooms. The trading of our goods outside of our communities has been happening for so long, so much so that there’s a market for it,” Montes said, adding that collectors buy items and then sell them to a museum for more money.

Gotthardt said the staff is hopeful that the stolen items can be retrieved. 

“It’s a terrible loss for the culture of California, and we are hoping that the community can help us locate the items by sharing anything they might see or hear,” Gotthardt said.

The Oakland Museum and the Oakland Police Department ask anyone with information to contact police at 510-238-3951, or the FBI at Tips.fbi.gov, 800-CALL-FBI.

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