/ 9 November 2008

Paintings stolen from Parkhurst gallery

Two valuable oil paintings were stolen from a Parkhurst art gallery where they were to have been exhibited, their owner said.

The artist, Bergere, said she was busy hanging the paintings for an exhibition that opened at the weekend when she went to the kitchen for a few minutes.

”When I returned to the gallery I realised something was missing and when I checked against my list, I discovered that two paintings had disappeared.”

Bergere said she was ”shocked and astonished”. The theft was reported to the police.

There had been a number of people in the gallery at the time of the theft, Bergere said.

One of the stolen painting was titled Manifestation Two, depicting butterflies emerging from a vacuum, and the other was an abstract work titled Red Crescent, featuring warm, amber colours. – Sapa