Historic Asian artwork stolen from museum on Israeli kibbutz
Among the stolen works were a Chinese Tang Dynasty sculpture, a 14th-century bronze Buddha, a stone Bodhisattva dating to the 2nd or 3rd century and a 12th-century Cambodian Buddha.
By DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDSIsraeli police officers patrol on Jaffa Street in Jerusalem, June 25, 2020.(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
Thieves have stolen 27 pieces of valuable, historic Asian artwork from a small museum in northern Israel and damaged around ten others, just days after the museum re-opened following the coronavirus lockdown.Among the stolen works were a Chinese Tang Dynasty sculpture, a gilded 14th century bronze Buddha from Thailand, a stone Bodhisattva from India dating to the 2nd or 3rd century and a 12th century Cambodian Buddha statue, The Art Newspaper has reported.The pieces were among the roughly 1,000 works held by the Wilfrid Israel Museum of Asian Art & Studies located in Hazorea, a kibbutz in northern Israel. Many of the stolen pieces were part of the personal collection of the museum's namesake, Wilfrid Israel, who bequeathed his collection of Asian Art to the kibbutz in 1943, along with the museum dedicated to exhibiting the artworks.Opened in 1951, placing it among the oldest art museums in Israel, the museum's small size meant it was among the first wave of cultural outlets to reopen following the coronavirus lockdown. The museum's permanent collection was not yet open to the public, but three temporary exhibitions reopened to visitors on Thursday."On Wednesday morning, August 19, 2020, the permanent display room of our museum was broken into," the museum said in a statement."Dozens of works of art were stolen from the exhibition, rare in their beauty and artistic uniqueness, some from the collection of Wilfrid Israel himself. The burglars broke in and threw statues and tools on the floor, which they did not take but left broken on the museum floor. The sight of the breached space evokes a painful sense of violence and evil, and, of course, of wondering who could do such a horrible thing."According to the museum, the kibbutz's security team was quickly involved, as were the police and even the Ministry of Culture. Hili Tropper, the Minister of Culture, and Megiddo Council Chairman Itzik Kholovsky both visited the premises the following day to offer support to the museum's staff, and have vowed to offer financial assistance for repairs to the security system.The museum has also taken steps to recover the lost artworks, alerting traders in artifacts, auction houses, galleries and merchants both in Israel and globally to be on the lookout for the items. The list of items is available on their website."We were closed for two months, absolutely nothing happened during the lockdown period,” said museum director Nurit Asher Fenig. “Our resources [as a small museum] for protecting ourself are very limited. We’re in the middle of a kibbutz, we didn’t think this could happen to us.”
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