On the 23 January 1986 two men flew from Sydney to Perth, booked into a motel near the airport and drove 130km north to New Norcia by hire car. Late that afternoon the men entered the Museum and Art Gallery, and bound and gagged the female attendant. They stole twenty-six seventeenth and eighteenth century paintings on display. These paintings had been collected by the Benedictine monks over the Community's 140-year history at New Norcia.

In their haste to get away, the men worked roughly, wrenching frames apart and using Stanley blades to remove the pictures. The thieves rolled the canvases into bundles, put them in the boot of their car and returned to Perth.

From the outset the Perth Major Crime Squad took control of the case. Within two weeks of the robbery, a Sydney man was arrested and confessed to the crime. At his home the police found eleven of the paintings together with the names of his two associates.

At the home of one of the associates another eleven paintings were found. The remaining paintings were found at Sydney airport, wrapped and ready for loading onto an aircraft bound for Manilla. All but one of the pictures were recovered.

Late in 1986 three Sydney men went on trial for the crime in Perth. It was revealed that an art reproducer was the architect of the robbery. All three were convicted and served a minimum of three years in prison. The Benedictine Community subsequently received a written apology from one of the men.