More about the Darwin heist and recovery.

“Well, it’s not an April Fools’ Joke, it has just been a rather excessive occurrence, an extreme occurrence,” museum director Anna Malgorzewicz said.

And despite the happy ending, she said the robbery was no laughing matter.

“I think everyone at the museum is feeling the drain of today’s emotions and stresses,” she said of the museum’s first break-in.

Police believe that shortly after 4am (CST) today, a 37-year-old man and another person used a rock to smash a window at the rear of the museum, setting off alarms.

But by the time police arrived 15 minutes later, the thieves had escaped with six Papunya Tula board paintings from the Western Desert and a central Australian watercolour.