The art of artwork robbery

THE ART OF ARTWORK ROBBERY

Curious robberies … All of them are true?

We are going to relate six strange artwork thefts. One of them is false. Are you able to know  which one among all of them haven’t ever happened? You could debate in couples and try to get an agreement for five minutes or so. After we will discuss it at class giving our opinions and trying to guess the one which is false.  But, be careful, the whole class only has two opportunities to find out the false robbery, then give reasons and try to convince to the rest of the students.  And it is not allowed to ask any question to the persons who have written this article, so you won't have any possible clue.

1.-  A suspected robber was arrested.   He was suspicious of stealing a 500 kg bronze bell  at the Saint Marti de Castellar hermitage located in Girona. The bell was taken from the bell tower at the beginning of  Easter but nobody heard  strange noises.

2.- At  Christmas eve in 1985, the Anthropology Museum of Mexico was assaulted.  In  that moment 140 archaeological pieces with  a value of 15 million pesos disappeared.

3.- A manuscript from the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral is disappeared.  Police suspicions are over  an organized band who commit the manuscript robbery at a collector request.  Specialised  police units in Europe are in alert because of the  priceless piece.  One of the electricians who worked in the cathedral was arrested just a year later.       

4.- In 1911, at the Louvre Museum, an ex worker robbed the “Mona Lisa” taking advantage of security absence. The artwork was taken as any common object and he left the area without any problem.  Vincenzo Peruggia, coming from Italy, had the Mona Lisa in his small flat for two years and he was just discovered when he tried to sell it to an art dealer. The robbery reasons were never  cleared up although people say that it was a patriotic act because Vincenzo just wanted to return the artwork to  its country.

5.- In 1990 two robbers are able to escape with thirteen paintings from the Isabella Stewart Gardnet Museum in Boston, among those artworks some were by Rembrandt. Two robbers dressed up as policemen said that they brought a warrant of arrest against a security guard. They handcuffed him and they took advantage of robbering some artworks being appraised at  one third of a billion dollars.  Up to now nobody has been arrested and the paintings haven’t been recovered yet.

6.- An emerald and ruby bracelet property of María de Medicis is located in a pawn shop in 1924, the person who sold it was a famous chorister at her time, Aurora Vidal, but she gradually lost fame. She told that this jewel was a present from a great admirer, the Count of Miramar. The police discovered that the Count only was the nickname of the famous robber, Antonio Lafuente in arrest warrant since 1923. The wealthy owner didn't report about the robbery of the bracelet  in due time because she had an affair with that robber being a married woman and the disappearance of the jewel and the robber were at a time . The robber was never detained or arrested.

Mª José Sierra - Alfonso Dolset