Culture

Stolen Reid art recovered

by michelle.sundvick | June 11, 2008 at 11:38 am

394 views | 35 Recommendations | 6 comments

It has been confirmed that the stolen art work of Haida artist Bill Reid has been recovered by police (save 2 pieces). Fortunately, all of the art was found intact.

Almost all of celebrated Haida artist Bill Reid's stolen artwork has been recovered following the execution of two search warrants in Burnaby and New Westminster over the weekend, police said yesterday.
"After searching both residences extensively, all but two stolen Bill Reid art exhibits were recovered intact. The substantive items, including the most prized ... the gold box with an eagle, were recovered," said RCMP Insp. Brendan Fitzpatrick.
Three people were arrested during the searches, but they were later released. No charges have been laid.

The 12 stolen Bill Reid pieces, which police called "national treasures," had an estimated art value of about $2 million, but police had feared they would be melted down for their gold value of about $15,000.

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=277631b9-a9b1-4601-9716-f33c438bfdff

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Amy Judd

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 12:12 on June 11th, 2008

michelle.sundvick, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Jarrett Martineau

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 12:29 on June 11th, 2008

michelle.sundvick, I like this story. It's good stuff.

JeffHuang

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 16:57 on June 11th, 2008

michelle.sundvick, I like this story. It's good stuff.

jmv

at 17:55 on June 11th, 2008

The story quoted above is a bit too brief to be entirely accurate; as "...three Mexican works of jewellery also discovered missing on May 24 have been dismantled."

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080610.wreid0610/BNStory/National/home/

I'd like to hear from the curator if there is a significant loss of value from being 'dismantled', or if it can be restored to its former glory.

I guess we just need to find the missing golden Eagle pin and the missing pipe...a bit harder to locate, if we don't know what they actually look like. Anyone know where there might be photos of the outstanding two missing pieces?

jmv

at 18:01 on June 11th, 2008

And another thing; I was Googling for local jewel thiefs, and I came across this article about a 'ring thief' arrested back in March:

"Police make arrest in hospital jewelry theft case" Updated Fri. Mar. 7 2008

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080307/BCringtheft_080307/20080307?hub=Canada

What are the chances ~ could it be the same thief!? I had heard the 'prime suspect' had just been released from prison prior to the robbery (serving time for the string of ring thefts, perhaps!?) Yep, just call me an armchair detective!