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Article: `Genteel' larceny - art theft - on rise
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- March 6, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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NEW YORK In the 1964 film "Topkapi," Peter Ustinov and Melina
Mercouri played thieves who descended into a museum in Istanbul
through a skylight to steal a jewel-encrusted dagger.
That plot was repeated with stunning accuracy last month when
burglars broke into Manhattan's Colnaghi Art Gallery through a
skylight, shinnied down a rope and took 27 paintings and drawings.
The stolen artwork was valued at $6 million, making it the
biggest art theft in New York history. The most valuable pieces
stolen were two panels by the 15th century Italian Renaissance master
Fra Angelico worth $4 million.
But unlike the cunning thieves in "Topkapi," those who broke
into the Colnaghi Gallery on Feb. 8 ...