Animal rights activists are suspected of being involved in the stunt, which has left the rabbit's owner, 26-year-old artist Richard Charnock, distraught. A search was launched of the Oxford Street cinema and contemporary arts centre as soon as the theft was discovered at midday on Wednesday.
Police were called out and have been examining CCTV tapes taken from the scene. It is understood two men went into the building, took a lift to the fourth floor, went to the rabbit's pen and took it out before leaving.
Richard Charnock, a graduate media arts student at MMU, of Withington, has owned the two-year-old mottled brown rabbit since it was a baby. The installation, like the other works in the exhibition, intended to `illustrate duality'.
Richard was too upset for an interview. In a statement he said: "I just want the rabbit back, and want to know that he's safe. I don't know if he is safe or not. I'm not willing to argue with whoever has done this, I just want the rabbit back.
"He wasn't traumatised in the environment at all, if I felt he was I'd have taken him home. The rabbit is far more important than any of the artwork to me, and I just want him back. He's my pet and has a loving environment with me."
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