Paintings nicked in Paris

Paris art thief appears more no-frills than thrillseeker

 

 

Christophe Girard, deputy Paris mayor, gives a press conference outside the Musee d'Art Moderne. Photograph: Philippe Wojazer/Reuters

The Guardian

The deputy culture secretary at Paris city hall made two excellent points today as he pondered the theft of five ludicrously valuable paintings from the French capital's Musee d'Art Moderne.

Not only had the theft been "very organised" noted Christophe Girard, it had also revealed what he termed "failings" in the museum's security system.

"There are three [security] people in the museum at all times," he added. "But those three people saw nothing."

Sadly for Girard — not to mention the trio he fingered before the press — the few details that have so far emerged about the break-in suggest the crime was less a hi-tech Hollywood heist than a good, old-fashioned smash-and grab job.

There appear to have been no deft switches (The Thomas Crown Affair), carefully-choreographed swoops from steel wires (Mission Impossible), or provocative, cat-suited slitherings between laser beams (Entrapment).

Rather disappointingly, the lone, masked thief who helped themselves to a Picasso, a Matisse, a Modigliani, a Braques and a Léger seems to have made short work of a padlock, smashed a pane of glass and climbed in through a window.

He (or she) then apparently had enough time to remove the paintings from their frames — instead of just cutting the canvases loose — before disappearing into the Parisian night.

There has, alas, been no word on whether a half-smoked Gauloise and small glass of Ricard were left at the scene to taunt les flics.

All in all, the operation seems to be have been a little more Pink Panther than Ocean's Eleven.

Perhaps, like the rest of us, Girard, the gendarmes and the museum's staff are asking themselves whether Hollywood's seductive visions of modern thefts, with their fetishistic use of technology and tension, haven't blinded us a little to the relentlessly opportunistic and oddly simple nature of most crimes.

The author of the break-in, though, would probably disagree — and might even refer people to a classic of the Tinseltown heist-genre.

Witness Hans Gruber's angry comeback in Die Hard when John McClane's estranged wife touches a raw nerve in the Teutonic tealeaf.

"After all your posturing, all your little speeches, you're nothing but a common thief," she says.

Gruber, sneering as only Alan Rickman can, retorts: "I am an exceptional thief, Mrs McClane."

A sentiment to warm the cockles of any coeur criminel.

                   

Comments

[sairj]

My dear, I think you are now the only official reader of this blog unless I say soemthing considered politically incorrect of course, which then leads to scores of comments... thank you for reading and for being there - and adding your comments so faithfully!
Love, love, love! xox

[Nicole]

I wonder if the mastermind thief had inside help and I also wonder why that "particular" window was notsecured and also why breakign the glass did not make any noise.
Anyway, the thief will never be able to sell them, his only outlet probably the sultans of oil-rich countries. Even this possibility is remote since no one in his right mind will buy a famous painting under these circumstances
Maybe it was a bet that he/she can succeffully steal and not get caught? Maybe the paintings will be found under one of the Seine bridges?