Vic: Aboriginal art gallery raids 'opportunist' - gallery owner

AAP General News (Australia)
04-11-2007
Vic: Aboriginal art gallery raids 'opportunist' - gallery owner

Victoria Police believe the same thieves are behind a string of Aboriginal art gallery
heists across Melbourne in the past 18 months:



- Ten paintings worth $80,000 were stolen after thieves smash their way into Kimberly
Art gallery April 4 this year

- $40,000 worth of artworks are stolen in a raid on Aboriginal Art Galleries of Australia
in the early hours of February 1, 2007 after a raid on the same premises in February 2006,
which netted $120,000 worth of paintings

- 20 unframed canvas rolls were taken in a smash-and-grab raid on Aboriginal Gallery
of Dreamings on January 9, 2007

- Four paintings, worth a combined $14,000, taken from High On Art on March 30, 2007
are later recovered from an abandoned stolen car

- The same gallery lost $100,000 worth of Aboriginal artworks in three prior raids
on January 19, 2007, October 2006 and December 2005

AAP sjm/lh

KEYWORD: ABORIGINAL FACTBOX

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