Word: theft
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More than 60 museum curators and law-enforcement officials gathered in Newark, Del., last week for a four-day conference on art thefts. They met with a sense of urgency. Only two days earlier, New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art had experienced the first major theft in its 110-year history. A 2,500-year-old Greek marble head valued at $150,000 had been wrenched from its five-foot wooden base and smuggled out of the building in daylight...
...theft had a fluky ending. Acting on a tip, police recovered the statue on Valentine's Day from a locker at Grand Central Station; a crude heart had been scratched above its right eye. Nonetheless, the incident underscored the fact that no museum−no matter how prestigious−is immune from the epidemic of art thefts that is sweeping the country. Late last year, three Cézannes worth $3 million were stolen from the Art Institute of Chicago. On Christmas morning, bold cat burglars penetrated the security system of San Francisco's M.H. De Young Memorial...
...together, crooks in the U.S. made off with nearly $50 million in stolen art in 1978, up an estimated 35% in two years. In Europe, police believe that art thefts are growing faster than any other form of larceny. Laments Donald Mason, former FBI art theft specialist: "Alarm bells are ringing all over the world. Time is not on our side...
...Plummer and James Mason. As the detective, Plummer grows from insufferable know-all to a man of sympathy and dimension. As the good doctor, Mason shuttles cannily from pawky humor to utter bewilderment. He steals the picture, and if Holmes has any sense, he will remain blind to the theft. This delightful pair should be employed again in a more credible adventure than Murder by Decree. Conan Doyle suggests one in The Problem of Thor Bridge: "That of Isadora Persano, the well-known journalist and duellist, who was found stark staring mad with a matchbox in front of him which...
...Donald Sutherland's uncharacteristically broad caricature of a bum bling aide-de-crime. Then again, when the delicious leading lady is at hand, both men tend to fade away. The great train robbery may well have been the crime of its century, but it looks like petty theft compared with Down's ability to steal a scene. -Frank Rich