Nearly $1,400 was stolen Thursday from the Ceramics Guild around 2 p.m. during its bi-annual sale of student work in the Kadema Hall Breezeway.

The money was stored in a box, which sat on a counter where it was being watched by multiple people throughout the day, when someone allegedly walked by and took it.

“It’s just beyond us that this has happened,” said Stephan Higginbotham, junior studio arts major and head of the Ceramics Guild. “I feel truly sorry for the person who thinks it’s OK to steal from other students.”

A police report was filed and customers who purchased artwork with checks have been contacted so they can rewrite them.

“There are people around us that think it’s a viable option to steal other people’s hard work,” Higginbotham said.

“(The Guild uses) this money to bring in outside lecturers to come in,” said Dania Lukey, art and education graduate. Lukey was one of the artists who had pieces sold in the sale.

Lukey said that a third of the money goes to the clay club.

There was also a sale by the jewelry and small metals club and a book sale nearby that had money in separate containers that were not stolen.

The Guild is now in the position of figuring out how to regain some of the money that was lost.

“Some students are willing to give 100 percent of their sales,” said Chris Thompson, senior studio art major. “We’re going to have a club meeting to discuss how to move forward.”

Other students who had pieces sold are considering increasing the share they had planned to donate.

Caution tape was placed around the walls and doors of Kadema Hall.

Nearly a dozen signs stating that the Guild was robbed were placed throughout the building over the weekend.

“This was some fellow artist paying tribute to fallen comrades, showing remorse for us getting ripped off,” Higginbotham said.

The Guild will hold the sale again in the spring and is coming up with ideas to prevent this from happening again.

Despite the disappointment and loss of funds, Guild members are optimistically moving past the theft.

“I think it gets bigger each semester,” Higginbotham said.

Thompson said students work is constantly being refined.

The one good thing from the robbery is that the Guild has had a strong show of support from other artists on campus.

“That’s the positive out of all of this. It’s brought us closer together,” Thompson said. “They feel our pain and are empathetic to our loss.”