African Artifacts Stolen From Peabody Museum

Several thousand dollars worth of African artifacts were stolen from an exhibit at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology last Tuesday, Harvard Police Chief Paul E. Johnson said yesterday.

Carved heads, axeheads and other tools of the Yoruba tribe, an African tribe that once lived in what is now Liberia and Nigeria, were taken from their display case on the fourth floor Teaching Display Gallery, Johnson said.

Harvard Police Lt. John F. Rooney and Sgt. Kathleen M. Standford searched the area for evidence after the burglary, Johnson said. The investigation is ongoing, and there are no suspects so far, Johnson said.

The burglary was discovered at about 1:30 p.m. last Tuesday by a curatorial assistant who was giving a tour of the gallery, Johnson said. She found a hole big enough to put a hand through in the lower right side of the artifacts' glass display case and saw that the artifacts were gone, he said.

The burglary probably happened sometime during the afternoon. Another curatorial assistant passed by the display case at 11:50 a.m. and did not see anything out of order, Johnson said. Ross Jolly, building manager of the Peabody Museum, told police that everything was in order when he walked through the area at 8:45 a.m.

According to Johnson, an alarm guards the building during the night but not during the business day.

Johnson said museums such as the Peabody usually have one guard patrolling exhibits during the day. The Peabody hires its own security guards during the day, and one Harvard security guard covers the Peabody as well as the Tozzer and Comparative Zoology buildings during the nights and weekends, Harvard security guards said.

"Just to look at the items that were taken, a very knowledgeable type of person would take these kinds of things, if they're taken for resale," Johnson said. "There's a very esoteric market for this kind of thing."

A glass cutter was probably used to get into the display case, Johnson said.

Assistant Director of the Peabody Museum Lawrence J. Flynn would not give details about the case, but said the burglary was unfortunate.

Johnson said a museum burglary like this is uncommon, but happens from time to time in institutions with such rare holdings as the University.