What a regional museum with volunteer staff can actually do about security

I spent three years coordinating security for a regional gallery where the roster was built around who could make it in on a Tuesday. Some weeks that was two people. Some weeks it was one, and she was also running the front desk, answering the phone, and trying to remember whether the back door had […]

What the Abbey Museum break-in reveals about display case theft

I’m not a financial adviser and this isn’t insurance advice, but you can’t write about a museum theft without insurance coming up eventually, so let’s get that out of the way early. Right, on to the actual incident. A display case was smashed at the Abbey Museum of Art and History in Caboolture in 2026. […]

The Weeping Woman theft: what NGV’s 1986 case still teaches

Four screws. Thats roughly what was left on the picture rail at the National Gallery of Victoria on the morning of 2 August 1986, once someone noticed Pablo Picasso’s The Weeping Woman was no longer hanging where it should have been. No smashed glass, no forced door, no dramatic struggle. Someone had simply unscrewed the […]