Danish police are still searching for two men who walked out of a Copenhagen museum in broad daylight with a bronze bust worth $300,000.
With modern technology and security advances, it’s hard to believe that anyone could get away with stealing valuable art from a museum, let alone during the middle of the day. Unfortunately, that’s what Danish police are dealing with after two men disguised as tourists walked off with a bronze bust by famed 19th-century sculptor Auguste Rodin worth an estimated $300,000. Police believe the heist — which took 12 minutes to pull off — was a carefully orchestrated scheme that began several days before, when the two men somehow disabled security features on the sculpture. Returning, the men slipped the bust into a bag and calmly walked out of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum’s front doors. The brazen act, along with the relative ease with which it was executed, seems unthinkable and will no doubt force this museum and others to rethink how their holdings are secured.
The bust, dating from 1863 and titled “The Man with the Broken Nose,” is relatively small at 10 inches tall and portrays the head of an elderly Parisian workman. A marble version exists in the Musée Rodin in Paris.
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Midday Theft
