Police in Cleveland have released footage of a man suspected of having stolen $81,000 worth of gems from the city’s Museum of Natural History.
The items, which were kept in the museum’s mineral collection, went missing on December 3, WKYC reports.
You can see the CCTV footage released by police here below:
In it, a young man wearing casual clothes and sporting a beard and a “man-bun” is seen approaching the museum at a leisurely pace. In the next set of images, we can see the same man leaving the museum hurriedly through a back door, holding some small and suspicious-looking items in his left hand.
According to KTVZ, the heist took place during opening hours, just before 5 p.m. on a Thursday, and a source has said that precious sapphires mightalso be in the cache.
Police said the suspect’s car might be a dark-colored Jeep Wrangler with a lighter-colored top and a spare tire mounted on the rear. They have appealed to the public for any information regarding the identity of the suspect.
Despite the heist, the museum is keeping its normal opening hours. The gem hall, where the items were stolen from, however, remains closed until further notice.
Thefts at museums during opening hours are becoming a rather common occurrence. This past August, two individuals stole a bronze bust by legendary sculptor Auguste Rodin, estimated to be worth around $300,000, from a Copenhagen museum in broad daylight.
In December of last year, a rare sculpture by Medardo Rosso was stolen in broad daylight from Rome’s Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna. Surprisingly, the bronze sculpture Bambino Malato (1893-95), which is one of the masterpieces of this artist, considered the “Italian Rodin,” was recovered the following day in the museum, inside a storage locker for public use near the entrance.