Purchasing an E36 that was previously stolen. Thoughts and assistance?

So there is a dealer very local to me in Australia selling an E36 that was stolen from the dealership at one point. The thief/s took out the ECU and also the keys are missing (supposedly, thats what he told me). In Australia E36's especially in manual aren't that cheap, this one is only a 318i but I plan to swap the engine out for something from a commodore or whatever isnt too expensive. But for now the 318i engine would stay. Is the ECU missing too hard/expensive of a fix? And is it also possible to actually get new keys made for the car without having an original? The dealer wants $1500 but its been sitting for so long that I'm sure he'll go lower because there is no way he'll want that on his lot. Thanks for any insight :/