Surveillance cameras, high-tech alarms… No method of protection is 100% effective against armed men. The heist at the fine arts museum is worrying and perplexing for the heads of art galleries. “These works by great masters have no chance of being resold.” For Jason Cori, assistant at the “Guy Pieters” art gallery in Saint Paul de Vence, these thefts are orders placed by unscrupulous collectors.
“The paintings by renowned artists are cataloged and listed. Canvases by renowned artists like Claude Monet or Alfred Sisley can never be resold.” Mickael Miller works in an art gallery in the center of Nice. “Here we don’t have works as famous as those stolen from the fine arts museum, but everything is done to ensure the security of our paintings. We’ve never had any problems, we’re in the center of Nice, there’s a lot of foot traffic, and the police are very present.”
When it comes to burglary, some galleries practice the art of evasion.
In the art world, thefts are not easily discussed. The “Guy Pieters” gallery has no memory of a break-in. “We know it can happen. But there are cameras, alarms: everything is planned to prevent burglaries.” Yet, this armed robbery is concerning. “If a man comes in and points a gun at me, I won’t be able to do anything,” says Jason Corti. Discussing the security of art pieces isn’t easy everywhere. For the Maeght Foundation in Saint Paul de Vence, security seems to be a taboo subject. “We do not communicate about our security.” A manager specifies that “there’s only one solution to theft: ensuring impeccable security.”
Police and art professionals are unanimous: this theft is an order from a major art enthusiast. According to Patricia Grimaud, deputy to the curator of the Jules Chรฉret fine arts museum, the robbers did not choose these four paintings at random. Two of them, the Monet and the Sisley, had already been stolen in September 1998 with the complicity of the curator at the time, who was sentenced to five years in prison. The two “major oils” were found intact a few days after the theft. Police now suspect the same criminals to be behind this second abduction. “It might be a passionate lover of these artworks, who managed to pull off the coup nine years later,” notes Patricia Grimaud.
