Museum artifacts recovered

University Police recovered on Thursday the $5,000 in artifacts which were stolen from the University Museum, University police said yesterday. University Police Lieutenant Susan Holmes said last night that all 27 of the stolen African artifacts were recovered by police, but that no arrests have been made. "I can't say where they found [the artifacts] because it might interfere with the investigation," Holmes said. She added that University Police detectives and the University Museum, located at 3260 South Street, are still investigating the November 29 theft. The recovery of the stolen artifacts -- less than a week after the theft -- marks a remarkable impovement over the three years it took police to find the $200,000 crystal ball stolen in 1988. Before the recovery on Thursday, University Police Detective Supervisor Mike Carroll said that the investigation would be very "involved" and compared this incident to the theft of the crystal ball, one of the museum's most well-known pieces. He said it had taken "a long time" to recover the ball, which was larger and more distinctive than the stolen African artifacts. Carroll added at that time that they may be harder to find because they were so small and could easily be mistaken for other things. Police, however, recovered the artifacts almost immediately after they had been stolen from the museum. Holmes said there is an "ongoing" search for suspects and that more information will be available at a later date. In an unrelated incident, the Richards Medical Research Laboratories, located near Leidy Laboratory, was burglarized twice over the past two days, University Police said yesterday. Holmes said last night there was no sign of forced entry in either case. In the first burglary, which occurred early Sunday morning, an office inside the building was ransacked, but police do not know what exactly, if anything, was actually taken from the room. In the second burglary, which occurred at 1:15 a.m. Monday morning, Holmes said there were several rooms on several floors which were ransacked. She said she did not know exactly what was taken from the rooms. Police did not make any arrests in the case and do not have any suspects at this time.