On this very day in 2014, police in Manchester, England, announced that they had an idea of who vandalized a local art gallery. Not entirely surprisingly, they believed a fan of a very famous local band was at the heart of the heist. That’s because the painting stolen depicted the Britpop band Oasis.
Earlier that week, a window was broken at the MASA-UK art gallery on Bolton Street in Bury, Greater Manchester. The break-in occurred early in the morning hours. Police believed that the crime occurred somewhere around 5:00 am. Just one painting was stolen: a black and white painting of the members of the Britpop band Oasis. The painting, created by artist Olga Tsarevska Lomax, was inscribed with the signature “otz2013”.
While Destruction of Property and Theft Are Serious, It Was Understandably Hard for Manchester Police to Not Slip in an Oasis Joke
The local police chief said that she was not aware of any “master plan” behind the odd theft. She did note that it was very likely that the mastermind behind the somewhat silly heist was likely a fan of the “Wonderwall” hitmakers.
“What the master plan behind this theft is, I don’t know. But a local business has been broken into and a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork taken,” said PC Katherine Gosling shortly after investigating the incident. “This was the only piece taken, and some might say we are therefore looking for an Oasis fan. Similarly, it may have been stolen to order.”
Oasis fans will likely clock that cheeky song reference in Gosling’s statement. Fortunately, the painting was later found. The culprit behind the likely fan-motivated theft was a 50-year-old man who had been charged with burglary.
Oasis has been the subject of quite a few crimes in the past that they were not involved in. Sometimes, fans can just be a bit wild. Back in 2000, a group of teens was involved in a “jumping” incident that severely injured a 17-year-old boy. In 2008, a stage-diver aggressively shoved Noel Gallagher off-stage, resulting in the rock star sustaining broken ribs. As recently as 2025, a number of Oasis fans were arrested in Manchester for trying to jump the fence and break into one of the Britpop band’s first reunion concerts in July. At that same set of Heaton Park shows, a number of fans were also arrested for everything from possession of Class A drugs to disorderly conduct to assault to ticket fraud.
Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
