19th Century Dagger Stolen From Queen Mary Exhibit
Long Beach police detectives are investigating the theft of a 19th century Russian dagger and sheath from an exhibit aboard the Queen Mary, police said Monday.
The Queen Mary is offering a $10,000 reward for the return of the items, presented to Alexander III by the emir of Bukhara in the late 1800s.
The dagger and sheath were taken about 2:30 p.m. Sunday from an exhibit of nearly 500 artifacts called “Treasures of the Last Russian Emperor.” The items are Uzbekian in origin and are made of steel, gold and wood, decorated with emeralds and turquoise, said Lovetta Kramer of the Queen Mary.
A Long Beach police detective examined a videotape from the Queen Mary in hopes it will reveal the culprit.
“Our burglary detective . . . is going over a videotape frame by frame,” said Officer David Marander of the Long Beach Police Department.
A security guard on his regular rounds noticed the items were gone from a plexiglass case that had been broken into, but officials could not explain why an alarm failed to go off.
The artifacts from the exhibit have been on display at the Queen Mary since July and are due to be returned to the Russian Museum of Ethnography in St. Petersburg next month, Kramer said.
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