The State - News from April 15, 1985

Police have recovered a box, valued at more than $100,000, that was stolen from the Oakland Museum seven years ago. The box represents the “largest piece of California gold quartz ever made,” said Michael Weller, owner of Argentum Antiques in San Francisco and the man who led police to the box. The 7-by-9 inch quartz box, made around 1875 and known as the Comstock Jewel Casket, is engraved with scenes of railroad trains, Indians and buffalo. The quartz lining the interior is laden with gold. The box was exhibited in Paris in 1879 as an example of California craftsmanship, he said. William E. Murray was arrested in 1980 for the museum burglary, but he said the box had been stolen from a storage locker in San Leandro where he had stashed it. The box ended up in the home of a Walnut Creek man, whom police didn’t identify because they didn’t think he knew it was stolen property. That man died in November.