No accounting for taste

Deans, who estimated the value of the stolen items at $12,000, specialises in sculpture and portraits, and prefers wood sculpture. The stolen sculptures represented hundreds of hours of work, he said. They included a plaster cast of a skull; a 20cm-high kneeling figure holding a bowl, in mulberry; a life-size head with exaggerated features made out of gingko wood; and a smaller, mask-like face in walnut.

"I just can't see why anyone would take them," he said.

Answers on a postcard to the usual address.

Artist's impressions are available at Over The Net and On The Table.