A man stole and pawned $85,000 worth of handmade porcelain dolls and figurines that belonged to his mother, deputies said.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office arrested Kenneth Gopen, 43, on Saturday.

Gopen's mother, 67, said on Thursday that she noticed one of her dolls normally displayed in the living room was missing.

Inside the home, the woman has three types of handmade porcelain dolls and figurines — Zwergnase, Himpstedt and Lladro, which are all manufactured in Europe. Each individual doll or figurine can cost upward of $5,000 depending on the model.

The dolls are about 2 feet tall and have life-like features and hair.

She confronted her son about her missing Himpstedt doll, but Gopen denied taking it. She checked other rooms of the house and found two more dolls missing from Gopen's bedroom. After discovering three dolls were missing, she confronted her son again, she told deputies, who admitted to pawning the dolls.

Once she realized three of her dolls were missing, she asked Gopen to bring down other dolls that had been placed in the attic and then she left for work, deputies said. In March, she had asked Gopen to put several of her dolls in the attic while she cleared out the room they normally occupy.

She came home from work the next day, but Gopen hadn't brought down any of the dolls, so she confronted him again. He told her that during the past four months, he had been picking off the dolls and selling them to a local pawn shop, according to deputies.

Upon further inventory, she realized more than 60 of her dolls and figurines had been taken. She valued them at about $85,000.

A pawn database showed Gopen had been bringing in the dolls since April and his last visit was on Friday. He told the pawn shop employee that his mother had died and left him all the dolls in her will, according to the arrest report.

He is charged with grand theft and is being held at the Palm Beach County Jail on $3,000 bail.

kjacobson@sunsentinel.com, 561-243-6547 or Twitter @katejacobson