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The Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver is offering a $50,000 reward for the safe return of the artworks stolen from the museum over the weekend. The decision was made after meeting Monday morning with officials at the University of British Columbia, which runs the museum.

Fifteen works of art - 12 of them by the iconic Haida artist Bill Reid - were stolen from the museum on Friday night or Saturday morning. Fourteen of the works were made from gold, leading to fears that the works were stolen for the precious metal - and that they would be melted down.

Mr. Reid's widow called on the museum Sunday to offer a "huge" reward for the safe return of the works, to prevent them from being melted down. "If this is a theft done by people with the idea of melting it down for the value of the gold, this is tragic," Martine Reid told The Globe and Mail.

Mr. McLennan says he hopes the people responsible realize the pieces of intricate artwork are invaluable cultural artifacts that cannot be replaced if they are destroyed.

He says another possibility is that the artworks could have been stolen by someone who knows exactly how valuable they are.

Someone entered the museum at the University of British Columbia overnight Friday and took 15 pieces of work in total — 12 by Reid and three Mexican gold necklaces.

Mr. McLennan says it appears whoever broke into the museum knew where they were going, and must have had proper equipment to get inside art cases protected by “very high security.”