SIXTEEN works of art, most Aboriginal and worth $100,000, were stolen from the home of Fremantle collector Mark Cattell earlier this month and he reckons it was an “inside job”.

Mr Cattell was in Sydney when the robbery occurred between Saturday February 6 and Monday February 8.

He says there were too many coincidences for it to have been a random burglary.

A family friend acting as caretaker of the home, as well as two adjoining neighbours, were all away for the weekend.

“I love my art and I would talk to lots of people about it and which ones I liked and what made them important, which ones I painted and which ones I didn’t really go for,” Mr Cattell told the Herald.

“The ones I painted are still there. The ones I pointed out as being those I felt were really special are all gone.

“It was targeted.”

Mr Cattell says a truck or ute would have had to make several trips up the laneway at the back of his Little Howard Street home to a carpark on Brennan Street near the Fremantle primary school.

He says his house isn’t easily identifiable from the laneway but quite a few people knew of recent troubles he’d had with his back door. His alarm either wasn’t on or not working when the theft occurred.

Mr Cattell says as well as feeling personal devastation at the loss of his property, collected over years, he believes several paintings are of national significance.

He says if he gets them back he may consider putting them in museums.

Spinifex people

One work was the only known example of a collaboration between the four senior male artists from the Spinifex people. Formerly an Aboriginal art dealer, Mr Cattell says the Spinifex people, removed from their lands to make way for nuclear testing at Maralinga in the 1950s, only paint in the bush and at ceremonial periods, making their works rare.

Another 2.8m x 2m work by the Wangkatjungka community in the Kimberley was similar to one they’d used to prove their connection to land as part of a native title claim.

That piece was cut from its frame, and Mr Cattell says it shows the thieves were naive, as they’ve destroyed its value.

He says the works will be hard to shift as the thieves didn’t take their authenticity certificates, which makes them almost worthless.

Mr Cattell also lost several works by European artists, including a lithograph by Toulouse-Lautrec he values at around $10,000.

He says if there’s a silver lining to the theft, it’s prompted him to establish Australia’s first website for stolen artworks, and says he’s got plans to expand it so it also becomes a place for people to lodge the details of all their valuable artwork.
He created the website because his police incident report didn’t allow him to upload images, so he simply linked it.

He says art theft is rare in Australia, and he’s discovered there’s a whole lot of legwork involved in trying to retrieve it. Having a single resource to go to could save others in his situation some grief.

by STEVE GRANT