Two artefacts stolen from Montreal Museum

Late October 2011, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts became the victim of a daytime theft with details originally withheld due to the pending investigation into the crime.

One item, a marble head from the Roman Empire, dates from the first century, AD, and the second is a sandstone Persian low relief of the head of a guard, dating from the fifth century, BC. The latter item is said to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. They are both between 20-21 centimetres and have been in the museum’s collection for decades.

Alongside the Museum’s statement of the theft, video footage has also been released. It revealed that the suspect is male, about 5’7 and wears jeans, running shoes, black jacket and baseball cap throughout the museum.

The investigation into the theft had involved the Sureté du Québec and art insurance company, AXA Art. Sureté du Québec is a dedicated unit of art-theft investigators, with Quebec the only province to hold such a unit. This perhaps signals the volatile, thriving industry for stolen artefacts. Art-theft recovery specialist, Mark Dalrymple, has been working on behalf of AXA Art to recover the missing items.

“The museum is terribly disappointed, not least because they offer a low-level-looking security system to enable visitors to see these items up-close,” Dalrymple said. “Beyond the financial value of these pieces, there is the loss to the people of Quebec. The museum would very much like to see these antiquities returned.”

There is an undisclosed reward offered for the return of the works of art. Dalrymple directly addressed the thief in a statement saying: “You should just hand them back now, and be done with it. You will not be able to sell these items. Not now, and not in five years, not anywhere in the world.” Alternatively, anyone who can identify the thief may be rewarded with $10,000. “We invite anyone with information to contact the Sureté du Québec.”