Highly Expensive
The painting was indeed expensive but the original piece was stolen in 1985 during an exhibition in the University of Arizona Museum of Art in Tucson, AZ. When the painting was stolen, it stole the limelight as it was everywhere on the news channel.
So, if this painting was stolen then what was it doing in the house of the middle-class teachers? Soon there was an answer to this as well.
Early Hours Of The Morning
Upon further investigation, he discovered that the painting had been stolen on the morning of November 29th. The initial visitors to the museum that day were a couple who eagerly stood at the front of the queue as the doors opened. As the guard prepared to unlock the entrance, the crowd quickly escalated, creating a chaotic scene.
Amidst the commotion, the theft occurred, and the valuable painting went missing. The couple, initially innocently positioned at the front of the line, unwittingly found themselves present during the unfolding of a significant art heist.
A Quick Distraction
As a group of 60 to 70 people swiftly entered the museum, the couple seamlessly blended into the crowd. Simultaneously, the security guard became preoccupied with an elderly woman who had been pushed and fallen near the entrance. While the guard rushed to assist the old lady, the couple seized the opportunity to slip through unnoticed.
Amidst the influx of museum visitors, the couple seized the moment of distraction caused by the incident with the elderly woman. As the guard attended to her, oblivious to their actions, the couple discreetly entered the premises along with the crowd, skillfully avoiding detection.
Distracted
At this time, the couple who was the first one to enter got separated in the museum and the woman started a conversation with the guard. The woman was doing it on purpose to buy some time for the man with her.
The couple looked like they were in their twenties and were quite active. Seeing that the woman had kept the guard occupied, the man ran straight to the third floor. What were they up to?
The Steal
Within moments, the man descended the stairs and politely requested the guard’s permission to have a private conversation with his wife. Exiting the museum, their departure caught the attention of the watchful guard, prompting him to grow uneasy. Reacting swiftly, he hurried back inside, his eyes scanning the exhibits to ensure nothing was amiss. It was a solitary watch; at that moment, no additional security personnel were assigned to safeguard the premises.
The man and his wife, engaged in conversation outside, left an air of mystery behind, stirring the guard’s curiosity as he anxiously assessed the security of the artifacts within the museum.
No Surveillance Cameras Jerome Jacobson
On that fateful day, everything favored the thieves at the museum. The absence of surveillance cameras left the investigators with no visual evidence to examine, and the lack of fingerprints further complicated the case. The criminals seemed to have left no traces behind, leaving the police with a perplexing mystery. The only lead was the couple’s arrival in a rust-colored sports car, yet even this offered little help as the license plate number remained unknown.
The investigators found themselves at a standstill, facing the daunting task of solving a crime with minimal clues, relying solely on the enigma of the couple’s choice of getaway vehicle.