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Subscribe to RSSA Salvador Dali painting worth an estimated $150,000 was stolen from a Manhattan gallery earlier this week, police sources told NBC 4 New York on Thursday.
NYPD via AP
Salvador Dali's painting, "Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio," which was stolen from a New York art gallery on June 19.
The 1949 painting, known as "Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio," appears to have been stolen on Tuesday from The Venus Over Manhattan gallery on Madison Avenue, police sources said.
Surveillance cameras show a man wearing a dark shirt with white polka dots enter the gallery with a black cloth bag, police sources said. He is later seen on cameras leaving the gallery with the painting.
The New York Daily News reported that the man took an elevator from the third floor onto street level and fled down 77th Street.
The painting was included in a display with other paintings as part of an exhibit at the gallery, which opened in May of this year, at 980 Madison Avenue between 76th and 77th Streets.
NYPD via AP
This image provided by the New York Police Department shows a surveillance camera image of a man suspected of stealing a $150,000 Salvador Dali painting from a Manhattan art gallery Thursday.
Anyone with information is asked to call police.
NBC New York and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
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LAUGH OUT LOUD - I read this article thinking someone had pulled an 'ocean's eleven' and dodged camera's, lasers alarms and all that stuff.
TIL - you could just walk into an exhibit, and just walk out again with a $150k painting.
This was not exactly a sophisticated theft. The guy just walked in, took the painting, and walked out. He was even dumb enough to let himself be caught on video surveillance walking out with the painting. I doubt it will be long before they catch this guy. Of course the gallery security must be a real joke for this guy to be able to do what he did without being stopped or at least setting off some kind of alarm.
Ocean's Eleven on a working man's budget.
How is that shirt "polk-a-dotted"?
i think the picture of the guy flee'n...better look'n than...the painting... that's a cool shirt...
“Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.”
Frank Zappa.......
a beautiful painting of...yellow snow...
Security Guard? wall sensors with attached alarm?
Give this guy some credit. He did get away. Maybe he will be
caught but I recall someone in prison on oceans 11 for this type of stuff. Low
budget heist but it worked.
"Don't fool yourself girl....."
@ Jaslam-4164063 - Yes, and what is especially funny is that he did it in NYC, a city known for being extremely security conscious with regards to cabalistic theft or espionage tactics like that.
Ugly Ugly Painting! Saw the same thing at a good will store for $1.50
I don't really see how a painting of a bunch of meat and cheese on a long bun are worth $150,000?
Ooops, that's Dali not Deli.
Wow, didn't even wear a hoodie or anything to cover his face...
he didn't want to draw the suspicion... of the neighbor hoodie watch guy...
plus he looks like george bushs son!!
How much does he expect to get for that "piece of Art" on the black market. I'm sure there are better things to steal.
you mean how much does he expect to get for that "piece of CHIT" so on .......
HA HA!!!
I would have to say it will look nice hanging in his trailer home.
er...isn't that a checkered shirt and a black case in the photo???
The plot thickens....
Maybe he changed shirts mid-thieft to throw them off.
Very smooth; Danny Ocean's got nothing on this guy.
;-)
that shirt is priceless...keep the painting...
SSOOOOOO is a Zebra White with BLACK stripes OR Black with WHITE stripes?
Im just saying!
They are as observant as they are vigilant.
Well, at least with the zebra they're all stripes. Last time I checked, polka dots are round and checkered is square. Round hole in a square peg maybe???
NevadaJ - THANK you for the LOLS!!! your comments thru here were hilarious. you too bob!!! :)
Definitely a gingham (checked) shirt. Polka dots may have been more appropriate.
Ok who takes a suitcase into the museum?
It's not a museum, it's a gallery. The painting is there for sale, not public display.
Oh, I see. Well then walking in with a suitcase was perfectly natural.
That's probably why he didn't stand out; I'm sure all the visitors had suitcases.
They all have suitcases full of money, like you see in the movies. And of is a bag of money, it is easily identified by the large dollar ($) sign on it. Man walks the kitchen and shows his wife the painting he bought for a million dollars. Wife says "You paid a million dollars for that. Our dog could paint better than that". The man says "Oh honey don't worry.....it was reduced from 2 million".
AGAIN no security guard!
I can just imagine these egocentric Artistic groups involved there fluttering around dismayed confounded and somewhat miffed that this could possibly happen to them. HAHAHAHA
What a flurry of meetings this must have spawned. With of course a crack team of security minded people reviewing the incident.
" ( with British accent )OH my JEEBS what on earth happened? We had security cameras and everyone was on the lookout for buyers, Thieves and now this."
A $9.00 motion detection device would have saved the day. We use them here all the time and it keeps people off and away from specific merchandise.
Having security equipment would have made the artwork look "cheap". It looks much cleaner, more "feng shui" out in the open. There is probably an insurance clause that makes "feng shui" a legal option for the gallery when purchasing insurance. ;-)
I have better art hanging on my refrigerator. The artists? My grandchildren!
Dali made a ton of money his entire career and died a very rich man. You should encourage your grandchildren to study art.
Be mindfull of kitchen visitors carrying a suitcase.
but'r get alarming magnets on that refrigerator door...
Nevada, you are a trip!! LOL
With all the publicity this painting is gonna be hard to get rid of. Then again some fanatical collector is probably out there waiting to buy it and lock it up in a secret room forever.
It may have well been commissioned in exactly that way.
Some rich eccentric collector gets word to Goober through levels of intermediaries: Would you like to make $10K Cash?
Goober, of course, only knows some guy named Joe he met in a bar.
Behind it all was probably François Toulour.
Then again, he could have done it on his own and we wouldn't be reading about it.
nevada - i like your version of events and suspect it's probably pretty close to what happened. I suppose the painting is now long gone, meanwhile the dude who committed the theft is definitely going to get caught...
goodbye dali
hello dolly...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-8sNWfEf7s&feature=related
roflmao, bob
It's unfortunate some of these galleries don't better safeguard their assets from "opportunists" of this nature! Eventually he will be identified and apprehended. Stolen artwork of value is not easy to sell as can be identified by print numbers, authenticity registration, etc. It's imcumbent among potential buyers to check Interpol and validate ownership before acquiring valuable works.
its not unfortunate its criminal and allowed by the insurance companies who insure these pieces of art but require no alarm or protection system.
Those guilty the insurance agency for permitting it to occur in the first place. FRAUD.
This could be a case of an insurance scam. It is a really bad Dali, but is valued as an "original" signed painting as opposed to those dime a dozen prints he cranked out later in life. The painting could be worth more to the gallery stolen and compensated for insurance, than for what a collector would actually pay.
wonder what the guy wants for the painting...i trade him a half eaten bowl of rice crispes...a half cup of cold coffee for it ...a cheeto i found on my key board...
Update...the cheeto is no longer available...
White polka dots? Black polka dots? Checkered? None of these! Hasn't anyone heard a black and white PLAID?
Quick, call the fashion police on these people. I would not want these people giving eye witness testimony in court. He would never be convicted.
Johnny why are you stealing that painting you know we can see you?
Whew, glad it wasn't "Persistence of Memory." Even though the painting stolen is a butt-ugly acid trip, Dali has some really cool stuff and he's a favorite for me.
If I was a lawyer, i would say, Painting? what Painting? I dont see him walking out with a painting... They dont have a solid case on him, unless they have him on film taking it. I just see a man with a black breifcase. Theyre up sh1t creek with this one.
He looks like Seth, from Hardcore Pawn!!!
I guess that Les needs more publicity.
And that is not a polk a dot shirt, they are squares on a black shirt.
Wow.. it's usually the gallery owner's that are the thieves! Check out the art world's Bernie Madoff, Larry Salander!
SoFlaGirl: Excellent point. Most galleries are tax shelters for the super rich. They also artificially inflated prices by manipulating (exploiting) the minimum bid rules at auction houses for years. When the IRS finally caught on to the scam the biggies, Christies and Sotheby's, resorted to good old-fashioned price fixing. That landed the owner of Sotheby's in jail for a couple years and VP's from Christies left the country to avoid arrest.
It never ceases to amaze me at how horrible the cameras are that guard hundreds of thousands of dollars in valuables. Granted this guy should be easily recognized by someone who knows him, but seriously....!
Some people might say that the crime of the century was perpetrated by Dali for painting this thing. But seriously......
This was really amateur night at art theft school. These paintings are so well known among dealers and serious collectors that it is almost impossible to sell publicly. The only possibilty is that this is a steal to order for someone outside the country. Now how is he going to smuggle this thing out of the country to whereever it is going?? The dumbest thing he did was letting himself be photographed and clearly at that. Nice pose. I'll take two 8 X 10's. This jerk would have been better off boosting car radios on Riverside Drive or selling dope in upper Manhattan. So now smile....its your lucky day.... you're on candid camera. Remember "there are 8 million lives in the Naked City"....and not all of them are very smart.
And here's a thought for you. Did you ever wonder why no one steals a Thomas Kinkade?
Now that I think about it, this guy looks like an extra from Law and Order.
Is that the best thing he could find to steal? UGLY!! He might get like 5 bucks for it
maybe he bought the painting but someone did not let the others working there in on it, so now they are all tryin to cover their backside and crying theft
Interesting. This same thing happened at a gallery in Bellevue Washington in the late 80's. Same artist, same type of burglary.
Damn, Wal-Mart has better security.