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Auckland University deputy vice-chancellor Raewyn Dalziel hopes the perpetrators of a $200,000 art heist will realise the stolen works will not easily be sold, and would be better off returned to where everyone can appreciate them.
"I think they are going to be very hard to move on, and I think people in the end will realise that these are items people should be seeing," Professor Dalziel said last night.
Thieves stole a $100,000 Charles Goldie painting, seven Colin McCahon poems worth $7000 and an unbound copy of the Oxford Lectern Bible valued at $100,000 from the library's special collections room while it was closed during the Christmas holidays.
The most significant item - Goldie's 86-year-old portrait of Hori Pokai of Ngati Maru and Ngati Paoa - had just been returned to New Zealand after being in Canada for 70 years.
Art experts believe the items were stolen to order and may never be seen again.
The hunt for those behind the theft is into its second week, and university library staff and security personnel have been interviewed. Police have told international art dealers to be on the lookout for any of the items.
Detective Sergeant Richard Veacock said scene evidence showed there had been some planning for the theft. Though he would not give details, Mr Veacock said he believed that the thieves had "done a reccy" at the university.
Professor Dalziel was expected to meet with security and library staff today, and security procedures around university collections would be reviewed.
But the thieves could have their work cut out trying to fence the items if the theft was not to order.
Art critic Hamish Keith said the only item that might have resale value was the Bible, as the Goldie and McCahon works would not have the same value outside New Zealand. "It's an odd bunch of things to steal."
Ferner Galleries managing director Helene Phillips said last week it was likely the items had been stolen to order and it was possible they would never be seen again.
- Additional reporting NZPA
