WATCH: Alleged thieves caught stealing artwork from Mellwood Art Center
During an event at Mellwood Art Center on Sunday, surveillance cameras caught four alleged thieves stealing artwork.
It happened just before 3 a.m., and the video shows one person carrying out a large canvas and another coming back to retrieve a second piece.
A different video from the parking lot then shows the group making away $6,000 worth of art belonging to street artist Jason Lois.
“It's been an outpouring of people trying to share it and find who these people are and bring it to justice,” Lois said. “I've been amazed at the positive outcome from this.”
Mellwood Art Center notified Lois immediately, a police report was filed, and LMPD is investigating.
“They've been great and done more than I expected, gone above and beyond to try and bring this to a resolution,” he said.
The thefts happened days before Lois had back-to-back art showcases. A solo exhibit at the art center on Friday called “Almost Famous" is a nod to his successful street art career. He is also scheduled to have pieces on display at a group showcase in Los Angeles.
Fortunately, the stolen canvases are not part of Friday's gallery, and because guests will see 42 other pieces of art hand-crafted by Lois, he's choosing to have a silver-lining attitude.
“The initial emotion is anger because I put my heart and soul into each piece, but then you kind of let it go,“ he said. “If I never recover them, it is what it is. If because this happened, it brought more people to see what I'm doing who didn't know who I was and didn't know the art that I created, I'm going to take that blessing in disguise and try to make a positive out of this negative.”
Despite the unfortunate situation, what cannot be stolen is talent and creativity, but Lois is still taking this as a lesson.
“I'm going to learn from it and be better because of it, and this will probably make me work harder and grind more,” he said. “I think there are some things I will do security-wise to prevent this from happening in the future.”
Anyone with information about the thefts can submit anonymous tips to LMPD at 574-5673 or use the online portal.