Thieves have stolen a Charles Goldie portrait and an Oxford Lectern bible from Auckland University’s library over the holidays. Like most Universities, it seems Auckland shut its doors over the holidays, and the theft was not discovered until employees came back from their holiday break. It’s unclear how the thieves will attempt to sell the two objects, as they would be easily recognizable by any dealer. However, those claims are made every time there is a high-value robbery such as this.
Perhaps police are trying to discourage the thieves from attempting to sell the objects, or perhaps the theft was made to order. Regardless of how difficult these objects are to sell though, they keep getting stolen. The portrait, “Planning Revenge” was recently returned from Canada. I cannot find an image of that work, but this is a work called “A Noble Relic of a Noble Race”, which might be similar. Sadly, the work was recently returned to New Zealand, after spending the last 70 years in Canada