After declaring the case closed, city police have reopened their investigation into the theft of 27 antique copper panels that once hung on the side of Convention Hall, according to a report in the Coaster newspaper.
The panels — which had been removed for maintenance work on the building — were reported stolen on Aug. 2 by boardwalk redeveloper Madison Marquette, which owns Convention Hall. The theft was not made public until March.
The loss of the panels exceed $100,000, a Madison Marquette official has previously told the Sun. The panels had been stored in an area next to Convention Hall at the time of the theft.
Police chief Mark Kinmon said there’s new information on the case, and that his department has also been in contact with the state attorney general’s office to look into the matter, reporter Don Stine of the Coaster writes in the weekly paper’s May 3 edition.
A Neptune resident who works in the city apparently supplied a new lead, Stine reported. The individual says he saw some of the panels, folded in half, being removed from the Sunset Avenue boardwalk pavilion and being loaded into an old red pickup truck, according to Stine’s report.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Convention Hall was designed by the architectural firm of Warren and Wetmore, who also designed the landmark Grand Central Terminal in New York. The panels are thought to be original to the 1929 building.
