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A few things to consider before committing a museum heist

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A few things to consider before committing a museum heist

A forensics officer examines the cut window and balcony of a gallery at the Louvre Museum which was the scene of a robbery on October 19 in Paris.

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The glamorous image of art heists often conjures up Bond-villain masterminds orchestrating elaborate schemes. Laure Beccuau, the lead prosecutor in the recent Louvre case involving the theft of more than $100 million worth of historic jewelry, suggested in an interview on French news channel BFMTV this week that the job could be the work of organized crime or commissioned by a major “sponsor.”

But lawyer Christopher Marinello, founder and CEO of Art Recovery International, a London and Venice-based group specializing in tracking down stolen works of art, dismisses the latter Hollywood scenario. “There have been questions about some sort of slippery Dr. No-type character who’s ordering these thefts from afar for his personal collection in his underwater lair,” said Marinello. “But in 39 years of working on art recovery cases, I have never seen a theft-to-order case.”

Stealing art can, in fact, be far from lucrative. No reputable buyer will touch recognizable stolen pieces, which typically sell for just a fraction of their true value on the black market. “If you steal a Picasso, you have to keep it a Picasso,” Marinello said. “It has to stay in one piece.”

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However, Marinello said there’s a much bigger upside to stealing diamond tiaras and emerald necklaces because they can be broken up and sold off as individual gems. “That can be done as simply as sewing the stones inside a jacket, driving outside of France and going to a place like Tel Aviv or Antwerp where they have jewelry centers and experts who will recut larger stones into smaller stones,” Marinello said. “And then you’ve gotten away with the crime of the decade.”

Relatively light penalties add to the temptation. Stealing a major artwork from a U.S. museum carries a maximum 10-year sentence under federal law and a potential fine, with similar penalties in France. And many museums are also easy targets.

“For well-known pieces of artwork, because their black market value is so low, there’s already very little incentive for criminals to go after those pieces,” said Frederick Chen, an economics professor at Wake Forest University who has co-authored a paper on the economics of art heists. “And so there’s less incentive for museums to invest in security.”

Chen said museums are even less likely to protect artifacts that don’t drive ticket sales. “From the thieves’ perspective, you already know the museum isn’t going to have security that’s going to be as strong as going to, say, a Tiffany’s,” Chen said.

Myles Connor, an 82-year-old veteran art thief who stole a Rembrandt from Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts in 1975 among other crimes and served substantial prison time, agrees museums are vulnerable. “Most museums don’t have armed guards,” he said. “And so if you’re armed and determined, you can grab almost any painting out of almost any museum. And you can also do that with jewelry.”

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But Connor says it’s a bad idea to break up valuable jewelry, like pieces found in museums. “If you break them up, you destroy the value of the items and you’d kind of be low-balling yourself,” he said.

Connor said there’s a better way to cash out. “When I stole paintings from museums, it was always with the intention of returning the painting and getting a reward.” Connor said he received $50,000—about $300,000 in today’s money—for returning the Rembrandt.

He said he hopes the Louvre thieves will follow his playbook, adding “I’m sure the reward will be substantial.”

The French government hasn’t yet announced any reward – though some experts, including Anthony Amore, the head of security and chief investigator at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, itself a target of art theft, have publicly called for it.

Lifestyle

Photos: 2026 Golden Globes Red Carpet

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Photos: 2026 Golden Globes Red Carpet

Ariana Grande arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif.

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The brightest stars in TV and film kicked off the 83rd annual Golden Globes tonight in Beverly Hills, Calif. with Ariana Grande, Noah Wyle, Teyana Taylor and George Clooney are just some the names who walked the red carpet. This year’s ceremony was hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser.

Here’s a glimpse of what some of the attendees are wearing tonight.

Michael B. Jordan arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Michael B. Jordan

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Ryan Coogler and Zinzi Evans

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Nikki Glaser Wears ‘Spinal Tap’ Hat to Tribute Rob Reiner at Golden Globes

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Nikki Glaser Wears ‘Spinal Tap’ Hat to Tribute Rob Reiner at Golden Globes

2026 Golden Globes
Nikki Glaser Shouts Out Rob Reiner …
Dons ‘Spinal Tap’ Hat at Close of Show

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Sunday Puzzle: Pet theory

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Sunday Puzzle: Pet theory

On-air challenge

Today’s puzzle is called “Pet Theory.” Every answer is a familiar two-word phrase or name in which the first word start starts PE- and the second word starts T-. (Ex. What walkways at intersections carry  –>  PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC)

1. Chart that lists all the chemical elements

2. Place for a partridge in “The 12 Days of Christmas”

3. Male voyeur

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4. What a coach gives a team during halftime in the locker room

5. Set of questions designed to reveal your traits

6. Something combatants sign to end a war

7. Someone who works with you one-on-one with physical exercises

8. Member of the Who

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9. Incisors, canines, and premolars that grow in after you’re a baby

10. Nadia Comaneci was the first gymnast to score this at the Olympics

11. What holds the fuel in a British car

Last week’s challenge

Last week’s challenge was a numerical one from Ed Pegg Jr., who runs the website mathpuzzle.com. Take the nine digits — 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. You can group some of them and add arithmetic operations to get 2011 like this: 1 + 23 ÷ 4 x 5 x 67 – 8 + 9. If you do these operations in order from left to right, you get 2011. Well, 2011 was 15 years ago.  Can you group some of the digits and add arithmetic symbols in a different way to make 2026? The digits from 1 to 9 need to stay in that order. I know of two different solutions, but you need to find only one of them.

Challenge answer

12 × 34 × 5 – 6 – 7 + 8 – 9 [or] 1 + 2 + 345 × 6 – 7 × 8 + 9

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Winner

Daniel Abramson of Albuquerque, N.M.

This week’s challenge

This week’s challenge comes from listener Ward Hartenstein. Think of a well-known couple whose names are often said in the order of _____ & _____. Seven letters in the names in total. Combine those two names, change an E to an S, and rearrange the result to name another famous duo who are widely known as _____ & _____.

If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it below by Thursday, January 15 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle.

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