Burglars grab student's art

DEVASTATED: Artist Lulu Wang holds a phone photograph of one of her detailed artworks.PHOTO/ BEVAN CONLEY 100815WCBRCART02

Art student Lulu Wang was horrified to return from a mid-semester trip and find years' worth of artworks stolen from her Wanganui flat.

Miss Wang and her Bhutanese boyfriend Pradeep Chhetri returned from a two-week trip to China on Saturday. They discovered their warm clothes, shoes, bedding, computer and microwave had been stolen.

Worst of all, Miss Wang's three sketchbooks were gone. They contained about two years' worth of detailed drawings.

Some were work she needs for the animation diploma she is doing at Whanganui UCOL. Others she wants to show to gallery owners and exhibit.

Also gone were her Chinese medicine and all her art materials - expensive European water-colour paints and pencils and fine-tipped pens - and three tattoo guns she planned to use to transmit her designs to people's skin.

Miss Wang comes from Tianjin, near Beijing.

She has been in Wanganui since March and went home to China for a break after her first semester at the polytech.

She has a degree in sculpture and said learning about animation and 3D modelling would help her career. She and her boyfriend were so upset by the burglary they have left their Campbell St flat for a motel.

She is pleading for the return of her drawings and art equipment, saying they could be dropped off at Whanganui UCOL reception.

Anyone with relevant information should talk to Whanganui police.