Sheffield’s museums in the UK are appeal to the public to help recover a dozen items that were stolen from the Kelham Island Museum in the early morning of Sunday, May 14. In what museum officials described as “a carefully planned robbery”, thieves took 12 “irreplaceable” objects housed behind display cases, including knives, sculptures and silver kitchen utensils linked to the story of the city’s metalwork, a long-standing staple industry in Sheffield.
The stolen items date back to the 1700s and include items on loan from the Sheffield Analytical Office as well as those presented in the exhibitions created by the Ken Hawley Collection Trust. “We are deeply saddened by the burglary at the Kelham Island Museum this weekend,” Sheffield Museums Trust chief executive Kim Streets said in a public statement.
“The historical significance of these objects goes far beyond any financial value they hold,” Streets continued. “They range from one of the earliest Sheffield Assay Office hallmarks to the knives made by one of our last Little Mesters, the much-missed Stan Shaw, and are irreplaceable touchstones of Sheffield’s rich heritage.”
Hyperallergic has contacted South Yorkshire Police for further information and is awaiting a response.
Located south of Leeds in South Yorkshire, the town has a long and storied history of metalworking and cutlery production, much of which was carried out by local craftsmen known as Little Mesters. Sheffield’s proximity to raw materials like iron ore, as well as several rivers and forests that powered machinery, made it a primary center of cutlery production outside London in 1600, historians say. The first reference dates back to 1297 when tax records identified an individual as “Robertus le Coteler”, or Robert the Cutler, according to Sheffield Museum’s. website. In 1340, a Sheffield knife belonging to King Edward III was found in the Tower of London.
Items stolen from the Kelham Island Museum include four sculptures by Jason Heppenstall, a 104-blade display knife (1800), and two knife displays made by one of the area’s last Little Mesters, Stan Shaw, who died in 2021.
This recent theft is unfortunately not the first to occur in Sheffield. Earlier this year the Sheffield Assay Office was targeted by thieves when more than $100,000 items was taken during a burglary. The incident resulted in 14 stolen items and two damaged display cases.
“Once again, like the Assay Office heist earlier this year, the stolen items have no real value. For Sheffield museums and the stories they celebrate, these represent a much greater loss and are completely irreplaceable,” Ashley Carson, trial master for the Sheffield Assay Office, said in a statement.
Streets said the stolen items are “very distinctive” and likely to end up in the market. “We call on the public to be vigilant and to share any information they have that could help their recovery with South Yorkshire Policesaid Streets.
