Hollywood Style Heist In Munich Museum: Employee Swapped Artworks To Lead "Luxury Lifestyle" (Image:pixabay.com)
In a Hollywood style valiant heist, a 30-year-old Munich museum employee managed to steal costly art works, and replaced it with fake illustrations to resource luxurious lifestyle including the purchase of a Rolls Royce and expensive wristwatches.
A district court, as per the reports, convicted the man, awarded a 21-month suspension, and ordered him to pay back more than 64,200 euros to the museum, from where he stole the paintings.
The accused served as a collection manager at the Deutsches Museum in Germany”s Munich city from May 2016 to April 2018. During the period, he swapped a treasured artwork, “Das Märchen vom Froschkönig” (The Tale of the Frog Prince) by Franz von Stuck, with a convincing fake, reported the Economic Times.
After the robbery the convict approached a Munich auction house, falsely claiming familial ties to the painting, that it belonged to his grandparents or great grandparents. The painting was purchased by the Swiss gallery for 74,000 euros and the man pocketed a substantial 50,000 euros (Rs 44 lakh) after fees.
The man stole three more paintings from the same museum and sold two of them – “Die Weinprufung” (The Wine Test) by Eduard von Grutzner and “Zwei Madchen beim Holzsammeln im Gebirge” (Two Girls Collecting Wood in the Mountains) by Franz von Defregger – in return of 11,490 euros (Rs 9.6 Lakh), Economic Times quoted the court order.
The order also states that the man used the amount to settle his debts and sponsor a “luxurious lifestyle”. “The defendant shamelessly exploited the opportunity to access the storage rooms and sold valuable cultural assets in order to secure a high standard of living for himself and to show off”, the court added.
He also attempted to sell the other stolen painting – “Dirndl” by Franz von Defregger – at a different Munich auction house but remained futile. He confessed the crime when presented to the court and displayed “genuine remorse”.
“He stated that he had acted without thinking. He could no longer explain his behavior,” the court order added.
Deutsches is the world”s largest museum of science and technology, with about 28,000 exhibited objects from 50 fields of science and technology. They receives about 1.5 million visitors per year.
