Paintings Stolen from University Liggett Display

police are investigating the theft of three oil paintings valued at a total of about $1,200 from . 

The paintings were on display in the school's art wing. An employee last saw the paintings on the wall about 3:30 p.m. Sept. 13 and discovered them missing Sept. 14, according to a police report.

They were hanging among many other pieces of art on a wall and a responding officer was able to see where the paintings had been hanging. The paintings were landscape pictures, each worth about $400, according to the report. 

Sgt. Ray Yonkowski said detectives are investigating but the circumstances of the crime make it difficult. Paintings, unlike electronics, bicycles or other items, are not emblazoned with a serial number. They are also not as easy to sell because their value is less widely known, he said. 

In his decades as a police officer, he has never seen such a theft, he said, explaining how unusual and infrequent art thefts are.

Detectives have already spoken with several of the school employees–both direct employees and contracted employees–but those conversations have not yet yielded any leads, Yonkowski said.

The theft was not caught on camera and the building is locked at a certain point each day in the early evening, so access would have been limited, Yonkowski said. School administrators have told detectives they do not believe the theft was by any of their employees anyway, explaining anyone who had access has worked in the school for years, he said.

According to the responding officer's report, employees from the art department, an outsourced employee who oversees the grounds maintenance and housekeeping staff and the artist were interviewed about the thefts. The artist was very upset. 

The wall of art is changed every so often to highlight the work of artists from the area and the school has never experienced any problems in the past, according to the report. 

School officials provided photographs of the paintings to police, according to a report. 

Yonkowski said the other notable detail is that other artwork was left behind, suggesting the person had an affinity for those oil paintings or those pieces were targeted.

Short of the paintings being sold on the Internet on an auctioning website, the case will be difficult to solve, Yonkowski said.