OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KFOR) – A man is now facing a grand larceny charge after committing what’s believed to be the first-ever art heist from the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. 

“To our knowledge, it’s the first time anything has gone missing from the museum,” said Michael Anderson, the museum President and CEO. 

Anderson told KFOR that employees were doing a routine check on one of its galleries back in October when they made the heart-sinking discovery. 

“A small component piece of a larger glass object was missing,” said Anderson. “It’s not something that you would ever want to discover.”

He said the missing piece was part of an artwork in the Rose Family Glass Collection that’s estimated to be valued at $70,000. Museum officials said they couldn’t tell KFOR exactly what the piece was for security reasons. 

“So, what we did is we looked back through our security footage and we identified a probable suspect,” said Anderson. 

Court records reveal the surveillance video showed Christopher Lambert, who was actually a membership fellow of the museum and was identified through photos the museum had on file, take the artifact off of a display table and put it in his shorts pocket before leaving the building. 

However, Anderson said thanks to the quick work of the Oklahoma City Police Department, the object was returned to the museum in less than a week. 

“It actually is back on display. We got it back on display very quickly after recovering the object,” said Anderson. “We’re extremely thankful.”

According to the court documents filed last week, Lambert “confessed to stealing the artifact.” A warrant is now out for his arrest, according to the Oklahoma State Courts Network. 

As for the museum, Anderson says they have increased security policies to make sure something like this never happens again.