A man sounding suspiciously like a cartoon caricature of a thief has made off with a Salvador Dali painting from a New York art gallery, according to reports in The Washington Post.
Police are on the lookout for a man with a slim build, a receding hairline and a black and white outfit who made off with the $150,000 watercolour in a large black bag. The thief pulled the old ‘can you take my picture?‘ ploy on an unsuspecting gallery security guard, before removing the painting and making off with the greatest of ease, no doubt twirling a pencil-thin moustache between spindly gloved-fingers whilst laughing maniacally.
The Post reports that swindles like this are more often than not easily recovered by the idiot thieves who sell them on the black-market, a market you’d think would have to be comprised almost entirely of the FBI’s national art crime team – which is apparently a thing. Robert Whitman, an art security consultant with the bureau with a penchant for stating the obvious, said that “At some point, when that person was given access to the painting, the guard was not looking [and] that would be against any kind of protocol.” As you would think is the case with most thefts that defy legal protocol.
If a cat-and-mouse game develops between Whitman and the thief that results in the two becoming lovers then this self-fulfilling art theft come Thomas Crown affair cliché will be complete. Your move, Dali-burgler.
