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Stolen $55k gnome statue turns up, with note
A statue of a gnome stolen from a central Auckland art gallery has been found.
Gregor Kregar's bronze piece is worth $55,000 Photo: Supplied / Gow Langsford Gallery
The $55,000 artwork was taken from its plinth outside the Gow Langsford Gallery on Lorne Street in the early hours of Christmas Day.
Gallery director John Gow said the statue was found at a Salvation Army store in Glen Eden this morning.
Mr Gow said there was a note attached to the artwork asking for it to be returned to the gallery.
Police have taken fingerprints from the gnome as they try to track down who took it.
Mr Gow said the gnome will be put on display again, this time inside the Lorne Street gallery.
"I'm sort of hoping they've ... given it to
someone as a joke, and we can get it back" - John Gow
speaking to the Five O'Clock Report's Te Aniwa Hurihanganui
duration 2:14
from Five O'clock
Report
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Mr Gow told the Five O'Clock Report last night that there was security footage of the Christmas Day theft.
He said the gallery had displayed artwork on the plinth at the corner of Wellesley and Kitchener Streets for 20 years, and it was the first time there had been any problem.
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