Word: heist
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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What does it take to steal a Rembrandt? Surely one must divert the museum guard’s attention, disable alarms, twist through zigzagging lasers and plan a smooth escape. At least so it would seem from art heist films like “The Thomas Crown Affair.” But, according to the infamous art thief Myles J. Connor, Jr., all you really need is the audacity to stride into a museum during open hours, grab a painting, and run like hell...
...describing his adventures, he makes the “challenge” seem almost negligible. His memoirs, recounted in the new book “The Art of the Heist,” are thus vastly impressive despite their troubling implications. Connor’s anecdotes speak to the vulnerability of some of the most prominent galleries in the country—Harvard museums included—whose efforts to balance visitor safety with property protection do not always guarantee the security of the artwork...
Most of Connor’s art heist stories don’t sound like the movies. Rather, their main appeal lies in the amazingly low-tech and comical measures Connor used to break into museums...
...first heist Connor undertook, at the Forbes Museum, he accomplished on his own. After repeated visits to the place, he realized that the young night watchman consistently left the museum for hours at a time. “I waited until he went out,” he says. Connor further writes in his memoirs that he simply pried open a basement window and carried off what he wanted. He was 20-years-old and had no prior experience of heist...
...Thus the guards themselves—six for the entire Sackler—act as little more than a deterrent to art heist. Their training includes a little self-defense, but the guards interviewed say they could not stop an armed robbery. “Primarily it’s just being here as a presence to discourage theft,” the first guard says. “If they came in with arms, we would let them take it [the targeted piece] and call the authorities...