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oncerned about the little progress made in the investigation into the Sonobudoyo Museum theft three years ago, activists, religious figures and the local community held a talk show and mass prayer for the case on Wednesday evening.

'We are concerned and really hope that the case will be developed and the stolen historical collections found,' Yogyakarta Provincial Cultural Agency head GBPH Yudhaningrat said on the sidelines of the talk show.

The theft occurred in August 2010. 87 gold collections were stolen but 12 of them were scattered in the process.

'The collections are very precious, not just in material terms but also historical terms,' Yudhaningrat said.

Museum director Riharyani said the stolen collections were hundreds of years old and were parts of the gold collection of the Java Institute. Most of them came from the era of Yogyakarta sultan Hamengkubuwono VIII.

Among the stolen collections was a golden mask was used for a funeral ceremony in the Majapahit Kingdom era. The mask, too, was related to the history of Queen Gayatri in the time of King Hayamwuruk.

Yogyakarta Police chief detective for general crime Sr. Comr. Kris Erlangga said that so far the police had questioned 30 witnesses and traced all leads, but the culprit was still at large.

He said the provincial police had cooperated with the National Police Detective Agency (Bareskrim), Interpol and the world collector's network.