What tricks museum thieves are not allowed to use in order to take possession of a masterpiece: they climb onto roofs, make tunnels, turn off the ultra-modern alarm system, neutralize security. But sometimes thieves need only an imposing appearance and sleight of hand to steal.
This, for example, happened with Marc Chagall's sketch for the painting "Above Vitebsk", stolen from the Jewish Museum in New York. "Over Vitebsk" is one of the most famous works by Chagall. It, like almost all of Chagall's works, depicts the painter's hometown - Vitebsk and a wanderer soaring in the sky with a bag over his shoulders. According to experts, the cost of the canvas exceeded $ 1 million.
In 2001, a number of Russian museums, including such grandees as the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum, collected an exposition of 50 canvases of Marc Chagall's early works and sent it across the ocean to New York, where it was housed in the Jewish Museum located on the famous Museum Mile in Manhattan.
Over Vitebsk / M. Z. Chagall, 1914.
On the eve of the opening of the exhibition, the management of the museum arranged a magnificent party to which only a select few were invited. The tables were full of expensive snacks and wines. There were several hundred invited, in the halls of the museum there was nowhere for an apple to fall.
How, with such a crowd of people, the thief managed to steal the sketch is a mystery. The theft was discovered the next morning. Searches in hot pursuit did not bring any results.
Soon a letter arrived at the museum. Unknown people demanded for the return of the painting, neither more nor less - the establishment of peace in the Middle East. The message was sent from the Bronx by a previously unknown "International Committee for Art and Peace".
It was not clear from the letter which side the authors of the message were on - Israeli or Palestinian. However, they gave such details about the stolen sketch that the museum management had no doubts about their close connection with the kidnappers. However, after this letter, the "peacekeepers" did not get in touch anymore.
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But six months later, there was a sensation. Quite unexpectedly, the picture was "found" at the post office in Topeka, Kansas. For a long time, local postmen could not find the person to whom the package was addressed, and in accordance with the instructions, they opened the box. It was carefully packed with a "strange picture". Seeing the marks of various museums on its back, the postmen immediately turned to the FBI.
Topeka, Kansas.
In New York, experts from the Jewish Museum and Marc Chagall's great-granddaughter confirmed the authenticity of the study. After that, the long-suffering canvas was returned to the Russian Museum of St. Petersburg. It is still unknown who and how committed the unique theft.
Artyom Petrov, magazine "World of Crime", No. 10, 2017