Twitter: @BarbotRobot
So at least that’s over, I guess.
We reported last month that a number of Spanish painting were being suspiciously fucked with, including a piece by Salvador Dalí that a thief literally just walked right out of an Upper East Side gallery with. Well, according to Hispanically Speaking News, the gallery received an email not too long after the theft that the painting was being returned, and it was mailed back, intact, from a fake name and address. Police believe the thief had a hard time selling the painting due to all the news coverage. The New York Times writes:
Typically, [postal inspection service spokeswoman Donna Harris] said, art thieves cannot sell stolen paintings “because they’re hot.” She said there had been no arrests in the case.
She said the gallery received an e-mail earlier in the week that said the drawing, “Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio,” had been sent back. The e-mail included an Express Mail tracking number. She said the gallery had told the police, and detectives had contacted the inspection service, which retrieved the package at the airport
The painting is now in the process of being authenticated to make sure that the painting returned is, in fact, the same painting that was stolen.
Do you think they’re gonna arrest the thief eventually? Frankly, I find this whole affair kind of surreal.