By David Amoruso for Gangsters Inc.
Classic. While everyone is worrying about the coronavirus and the people that might be spreading it, thieves stole three high-value paintings from the Christ Church Picture Gallery in Oxford in the United Kingdom this weekend.
The burglars broke in around 11 p.m. on Saturday night and left with Salvator Rosa’s A Rocky Coast, With Soldiers Studying a Plan, from the late 1640s; Anthony Van Dyck’s A Soldier on Horseback, circa 1616; and Annibale Carracci’s A Boy Drinking, circa 1580.
The stolen art markets
The heist went without a hitch. No one was injured and the thieves got away scot free. The paintings are said to be worth millions. What’s that, you say? “Good luck selling those?” Well, you might be surprised.
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Though these are stolen items bound to raise a red flag, there are many individuals with a fat bank account willing to put down a hefty sum to have one of these – or all three – hanging in one of the rooms at one of their mansions. Matter of fact, there is a high probability that these thieves worked on assignment to get these exact paintings for a buyer.
Bargaining tool
If that doesn’t pan out, there are various other ways these paintings can show their worth. The Italian Mafia is known to use various pieces of art as a bargaining tool when trying to gain favorable treatment from the government. “Lower our sentences and maybe you’ll get that beautiful painting back.”
Police are now in a race against the clock to stop these paintings from disappearing into the darkness for years, maybe decades to come, until someone stumbles upon a million-dollar work of art while cleaning out the attic.
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