Is it just me or do you always think of art thieves as being in a class above typical criminals?
The Hollywood cliché is that they are like George Clooney or Cary Grant, effortlessly suave and with brains to match.
The new documentary series Stolen: Catching The Art Thieves (BBC2) painted a very different picture, however.
When it got to the moment where a £30,000 cash drop was being carried out – by a man with a bin bag over his head – I knew brains were in short supply and we certainly weren’t dealing with Thomas Crown.
How the paintings were eventually recovered had all the elements of a Hollywood thriller but, crucially, with a healthy dose of reality.”
The first episode of the series told the story of the 1994 heist of two Turner paintings, worth £25 million, from an art gallery in Frankfurt.
How the paintings were eventually recovered had all the elements of a Hollywood thriller but, crucially, with a healthy dose of reality that showed how, in real life, nothing ever goes smoothly.
Right from the start of the robbery things began going awry.
The thieves hid inside the Schirn Kunsthalle gallery until after closing then crept out in the darkness and snatched the paintings.
It was a clever idea – and one I’ve seen in films – but they weren’t wearing gloves, so left fingerprints everywhere. Oops!
Genuine suspense came when the boss of the Tate had to hand-deliver £30,000 to a mysterious “Mr Rothstein”, who was apparently holding the paintings hostage.”
And I don’t remember the part in Ocean’s 11 when members of the public took down the number plate of the gang’s rented Ford Transit as balaclava-clad thieves loaded up the loot in full view of everyone. Double oops.
Genuine suspense came when the boss of the Tate had to hand-deliver £30,000 to a mysterious “Mr Rothstein”, who was apparently holding the paintings hostage.
But the tension evaporated when Mr Rothstein turned out to be a total chancer, clad in a bin-liner disguise with holes cut for eyes.
In some ways, the distinct lack of criminal mastermindedness made it all the more fascinating.
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