Anthony Shaia claims to have had an 800-piece art Southeast Asian art collection in his Eugene, Oregon home that was stolen 18 months ago. Because Shaia lacks the supporting evidence, he’s had to take matters into his own hands to recover the works.

That backfired in April when Shaia took matters into his own hands. With a .38 handgun, he confronted a person he suspected had knowledge of the theft.

“There’s no way that I’m going to give up,” Shaia said. “This has been my life’s work, and it’s been devastating to deal with having it stolen.”

Shaia said he returned from a trip to California in November 2011 to find his home in Eugene’s College Hill neighborhood stripped of the artwork. He’d hung some of the pieces on his walls, and kept the rest in a closet.

Shaia reported the theft to police, who have followed up on a number of leads.

But at this point, detectives can’t do anything more with the case, in part because Shaia never insured his collection and didn’t provide investigators with sufficient documentation to show he had owned all of the items that were reportedly stolen from his home, police spokeswoman Melinda McLaughlin said.

Man Whose Art Was Stolen Admits Coercion (Registered Guard)