Oakland Museum burglary: 1,000 items stolen days before Louvre heist

More than 1,000 items, many of them indigenous historical artifacts, were stolen from the Oakland Museum of California on Oct. 15.

OAKLAND, Calif. - More than 1,000 items, many of them indigenous historical artifacts, were stolen from the Oakland Museum of California earlier this month.

1,000 items stolen

The Oakland Police Department is working with the FBI to investigate the crime, which occurred at 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 15. The announcement of the heist came on Wednesday.

The perpetrators broke into an offsite storage facility and stole more than 1,000 items, including Native American baskets and jewelry, as well as laptops and other historical artifacts.

‘Cultural heritage’ stolen

"The theft that occurred represents a brazen act that robs the public of our state’s cultural heritage," Lori Fogarty, the Oakland Museum of California’s executive director and CEO said in a press release. "Most of these objects have been given to the museum by generous donors. 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."

In an interview, Fogarty said that several laptops were also stolen.

"It's an enormous loss to the museum," she said.

FBI's art crime team

The FBI has a unit dedicated to solving such crimes, the Art Crime Team, which consists of 20 agents across the country.

The Art Crime Team is tasked with investigating all matters related to art, including theft, fraud, forgery, or antiquities and cultural property trafficking.

Anyone with information about the crime is urged to contact the OPD burglary team at (510)238-3951. You can also contact the FBI Art Crime Team at 1-800-CALL-FBI or online.

Oakland heist came before Louvre

The Oakland museum heist occurred four days before the internationally notorious heist at the Louvre in Paris, where now, seven suspects have been arrested.

The two museum heists were very different, and miles apart.

That museum was robbed on Oct. 19 in broad daylight, where eight pieces were stolen, valued at $102 million.

Some of those pieces include a diamond-and-emerald necklace that Napoleon Bonaparte gave to Empress Marie Louise as a wedding gift and crown jewels tied to 19th-century Queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense, and Empress Eugénie’s pearl-and-diamond tiara.

Those pieces have yet to be recovered.