Investigators believe Oakland Museum of California heist was ‘crime of opportunity’

Investigators believe that the theft of more than a thousand artifacts, including Native American baskets and jewelry, from the Oakland Museum of California earlier this month was a “crime of opportunity,” the institution said Friday.

The Oakland Police Department announced Wednesday that burglars broke into the OMCA’s off-site storage facility just before 3:30 a.m. local time on October 15, just days before the heist at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Lori Fogarty, the museum’s executive director and CEO, told reporters Wednesday that museum staff were not present at the facility when the robbery took place and first learned of the heist when they arrived for work on the morning of October 16. Little other details were provided at the time.

In a statement Friday, the OCMA gave new details about the investigation and said authorities now believe the burglary was a “crime of opportunity” and not a targeted heist.

 “There is no indication that the perpetrators specifically identified the facility as museum storage or sought particular artworks or artifacts. Instead, it appears they gained access and took items that were most easily available,” the museum said.

The museum also gave additional details of some of the items stolen, the majority of which consisted of “historic memorabilia such as political pins, award ribbons and souvenir tokens.”

The items of “particular sensitivity” that were taken were six Native American baskets, several 19th-century scrimshaw objects and an unspecified number of daguerreotypes and modernist metalwork jewelry pieces.

The Native American tribe affiliated with the stolen items has been in direct contact with the museum and has requested not to be identified, OMCA said. The tribe has also requested that the museum not publish additional details about the baskets.

The museum said that it had received an “outpouring of concern and support” since the news of the theft broke.

“This is a loss not only for OMCA, but for the broader community,” Fogarty said in a statement. “The museum takes its responsibility to steward California’s history and cultural legacy with the utmost seriousness and remains committed to recovering the stolen items and ensuring their continued care for future generations.”

Police said that the heist is being investigated with the FBI’s Art Crime Team and that anyone with tips are urged to contact the police department’s burglary team or the FBI.

The Louvre heist on October 19 sparked worldwide interest in similar thefts. Historic coins were taken from the Maison des Lumières Denis Diderot museum in the French town of Langres and a Chinese woman was charged in the September theft of gold nuggets from the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris.