Stolen artworks just the start of a very bad night for Canberra artist

Croft lost an artwork that was entered in the Hindmarsh Prize at the Canberra Glassworks in 2017, along with deeply personal items including her grandmother’s walking stick, toys that belonged to her deceased brother and letters.

Then on Wednesday, on her way back to her home in Hawker after discovering the robbery, Croft, a prominent Canberra artist and curator, fell and broke her hip. She is now in hospital.

Croft is an Indigenous artist from the Northern Territory and has lived in Canberra on and off since the 1970s. She works at the ANU as an associate professor of Indigenous art history and curatorship.

The thieves cut through a fence and the storage unit's lock and stole multiple pieces of art, as well as the personal items. They also threw other works out into the rain. Croft is attempting to salvage them.

One stolen piece, Grounded, is made up of cast stone axes and electrical wiring, and was featured in the Hindmarsh Prize at Canberra Glassworks last year. Croft had only collected it the day before it was stolen.

Other stolen works of art had featured in Heart-in-Hand at the Canberra Contemporary Art Space in July, an exhibition held to honour Croft’s late mother.

“It was like a domestic museum,” she said.

“It was a very intimate and personal show."

Croft said hundreds of personal artefacts were now gone.

She said she was overwhelmed by the amazing support she has received so far from the community.

“Really bad stuff happens, but then it just shows you how good people are as well,” she said.

Croft will be in the hospital for the next five days, but will be out of action for six weeks while her hip recovers.

She is offering a small reward for the return of her artworks.