What started as a festive auction of Grateful Dead memorabilia has resulted in a police investigation after about $75,000 worth of items were reported stolen from an auction house in McHenry County.
Randy Donley, the owner of Donley Auction Services in Union, said he was shocked when he walked into the shipping area of an exhibit hall and noticed a prized silkscreen missing from its easel. Two other vintage Grateful Dead posters and a serigraph were also missing.
“Oh, it’s devastating,” Donley, 60, of Union, said Tuesday. “I’ve never had anything like this happen before, so it’s a shock to the system.”
The McHenry County sheriff’s office has been investigating the theft for more than three weeks but has not sought public assistance until now “because we were pursuing other avenues of investigation,” Lt. Don Carlson said Tuesday.
Carlson said the sheriff’s office is seeking persons of interest but added that the main objective is to recover the stolen property. The theft is thought to have occurred during the weekend of April 25-26 at one of the two exhibit halls at Donley Auction Services on Union Road.
The items were listed for sale in the Grateful Dead Family Jubilee Auction two weeks earlier, which Donley said featured about 700 pieces of memorabilia and was meant to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the formation of the legendary rock band.
The stolen items include a 1966 original silkscreen of a skeleton with roses, which was enhanced by artist Stanley Mouse for the auction and had a reserve price of $25,000. The other items are a 1986 German promoter poster; a 1986 Statue of Liberty tour poster; and a 1966 serigraph signed by artist Wes Wilson.
Donley said all the items were awaiting shipping, with the silkscreen going back to Mouse because it didn’t reach the reserve price and the other items set to be sent to auction winners.
Donley said he has reviewed footage from surveillance cameras of the site and did not see forced entry of the
building, “so it had to have happened during business hours, which makes it all the worse.”
Carlson noted of the thief or thieves, “It’s not like they loaded up the semi. (The items) are fairly easy to conceal.”
He said the safe return of the items is a high priority.
“Don’t destroy them, thinking you’re going to be in trouble,” he said. “The return of the items is more important than the prosecuting of it.”
Donley, who says he’s never had anything stolen from him in four decades of working in the auction business, is offering a personal reward for information leading to the safe return of the memorabilia but would not reveal the amount.
“I would hope that anybody could help us just get the items returned,” he said.
Police are asking anyone with information about the theft to call the Investigations Division of the McHenry County sheriff’s office at 815-334-4750 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-762-7867.
Ding is a freelance reporter.