Watch robbers plunder Kelowna art gallery in a matter of minutes

• Smash and grab in just a few minutes
• Second break-in in two years
• Reward for information

Two men with a keen eye for art made one of the shortest, unwelcome, and expensive visits to Gallery 421 in Kelowna in the wee hours of Saturday morning.

In the span of just four minutes, the thieves made off with $70,000 worth of sculptures.

Gallery owners Kelly Hanna and Ken Moen got the bad news from their alarm company Saturday morning telling them they’d been broken into.

In security footage sent to Kelowna10, two male suspects are seen breaking into the gallery on 560 Raymer Ave. They used a yellow crowbar to get in at 1:58 a.m. By 2:02 a.m., they had taken 11 pieces of fine art valued at around $70,000 and weighing a total of 315lbs.

To make matters worse, it’s not the first time they’ve been on the receiving end of crime, having had their computer stolen in January,2020.

Hanna’s not certain what will become of the stolen items.

“I consider Kelowna to be a safe community and certainly our neighborhood a safe community but unfortunately, I’m totally surprised,” she said. “I don’t know what they’re going to do with these sculptures.”

One suspect is described as a 5’10”, medium build wearing a grey hoodie, blue pants with a white strip and white runners.

The second suspect was described as 5’6” , medium build wearing a dark hoodie and black adidas runners.

The stolen work included a bronze sculpture by Vilem Zach and Michael Hermesh, a stone sculpture by Vance Theoret and blown glass by Jeff Holmwood.

Hanna credits the RCMP’s effort looking through the footage as being very helpful.

“I asked, ‘how much help was the camera footage’ and they told me without the camera you’d have nothing,” she said. “They’ll be able to take the images we do get and that might help them find people in the community who are known to the police.”

Hanna and Moen are offering a $1,000 reward for anyone with information that leads to the arrest of the suspects.

Anyone with information is asked to call Kelowna RCMP or Crime Stoppers.