[MSN] Report of Theft from the National Gallery of Zimbabwe (image available)

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Report of Theft from the National Gallery of Zimbabwe

Image is available at:
http://www.museum-security.org

More images will be posted tomorrow.

On Tuesday 6 June in the middle of the morning a Caucasian man entered the
gallery shop and asked to see antiques for sale. He expressed
dissatisfaction with the items for sale and expressed a wish to visit the
Exhibiton upstairs. He was directed to the entrance where he paid his entry
fee. He had a bag and upon being asked to deposit the bag he answered that
as there was money in the bag he could not leave it behind.

He then proceeded upstairs where he then entered  the North Gallery where
apparently there was none of the attendant staff in sight. He proceeded to
untie 4 of the headrest that were fastened to one of walls and to remove two
additional ones and place them in a corner out of view. In addition he
removed two other masks. The thief then placed the 6 works in his bag and
literally ran out of the gallery leaving the two stools stashed away in a
corner.  He was spotted running out of the gallery and immediately the
attendants were alerted to look into the Exhibiton hall to check. It was at
this point that it was noticed that items had indeed been removed. 

The security guard then gave chase to the suspect who after some time
managed to corner to corner the suspect. Unfortunately the general crowd on
seeing him grab the suspect proceeded to beat him in the belief that he in
fact was the culprit. He then reported the matter to the police. (Ref. No.:
060498).

 In the meantime, the staff at the gallery called the police on site and an
additional police report was filed (ref No:  number:  060489).