Nearly $100 million in priceless pieces of art were destroyed by a Paris watchmaker when he became nervous about being caught.
According to the watchmaker he threw out the art pieces last year before being arrested by police. The man told police that a Serb nicknamed “Spiderman” stole works from a poorly guarded museum in May 2010 and tried to have the watch expert who also happens to have a background in auctions sell the art.
Among artists with stolen pieces were Picasso, Matisse and Braque among others. According to the watchmaker he “panicked and destroyed the canvasses before throwing them into a rubbish bin.”
Detectives working on the case say they can’t “totally rule out” the story but are skeptical based on details provided to their office.
As the story goes “ Spiderman ” was only attempting to steal a Fernand Léger work when he broken into the Musée d’Art Moderne but when an alarm didn’t sound he walked around the museum for an hour while evading cameras as he picked up five works of art.
Police say the watch and antiques dealer reported the story to police after “ Spiderman” failed to make a promised $40,000 payment.
I’m placing most of the blame on the museum for protecting their priceless pieces of art with a cheap alarm system that allowed a criminal to have free range over their facility for an entire hour.
