A student’s artwork was stolen from Bedford, first noticed to be missing on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2014. The investigation is still ongoing and is taking longer than expected. Thus far, no culprit has been identified.
The artwork is on paper with a circular design of Van shoes, made out of a collage of magazine cutouts.
Ashley Shukrallah, an 18 year old sophomore and Art major, was required to submit a piece of artwork for review and display on the second floor of Bedford, as part of her 2D art assignment. The last known whereabouts of her artwork was when Professor Kerri Cushman graded the project on Friday, Sept. 12, 2014, at 5:00PM. Professor Cushman noticed the artwork was missing from the wall the following Sunday.
Dr. Wayne McWee, the Art Department Chair, has been informed and is continuing to look into the situation. Although, according to Chief of Longwood Police Bob Beach, there is no report of the incident on file. “To be honest with you, I dont have any information,” said Beach. “Somebody had said there was some artwork stolen, but nobody, as far as I can tell, has called the police department to file a report.”
There are currently 32 security cameras installed in and around the building. One camera is placed right above the wall where Ashley’s artwork was taken. This provides an optimal view. However, the Longwood Police Department’s equipment used to view the footage has malfunctioned and created a tedious situation for authorities.
The equipment is able to display the footage, but is unable to fast- forward through the footage. As a result, an officer must sit and watch through 48 hours of security footage.
Due to the monotonous nature of the situation, the investigation was put on hold until other investigations could be handled.
Although the equipment has malfunctioned, the Longwood Police Department has ordered new equipment and should have received it this past weekend.
As for leads on the missing artwork, McWee stated, “I believe that as soon as their equipment is running, we’ll have a nice picture.” He is certain that the authorities will find the culprit and says they will more than likely be sent to the honor board or judicial board on campus. He also stated that they intend to prosecute for theft, and the punishment could be expulsion from the university for a semester or more. McWee is surprised that the artwork was stolen since a kiosk with pottery and a cash box have never been stolen from the art building.
“Nobody has ever tried to take the money box itself. So I’m really surprised that they took this particular piece of artwork. It was evidently a nice piece of artwork; it was homemade paper and a print. But I’m surprised that we’ve lost it,” says McWee.
Although authorities and Ashley believe the artwork was most likely taken by a student, it is possible that it could have been taken by someone else. Bedford’s exterior doors are locked by panels every night.
These panels allow students with access to swipe into the building on weekends and after 5:00PM on weekdays. However, the first few weeks of classes, these panels remained unlocked until midnight. Although this could have allowed anyone to enter the building without an ID card, authorities still remain positive that it was a student.
“It’s kind of flattering,” says Shukralah, “but then again it’s kind of like, oh, why would someone do that? I guess they must’ve really liked it...I just want my piece back. So hopefully they’ll find out soon.”
If you have any information about the theft, please contact the Longwood Police Department at (434) 395-2091.
