Great Seal heist: Queen Victoria’s gift to Norfolk Islanders stolen, with rebellious motives suspected

Descendants of HMS Bounty mutineers received the seal when handed the former prison colony

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When museum staff opened a supposedly secured container holding one of their most treasured items last Friday afternoon, they discovered the Great Seal of Norfolk Island had been stolen.

The brazen theft of an artefact symbolising Norfolk Island's identity may have sparked a locked-room mystery in the South Pacific, but it has also exposed the struggle for the soul of a most storied island.

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