Dalí and Dash: A Thief Walked Into a San Francisco Gallery and Ran Off With a $20,000 Etching by the Spanish Surrealist

It was an act so audacious that
Salvador Dalí himself might have been proud. This past Sunday, a
man walked into a San Francisco gallery, grabbed a $20,000 etching
by the late Spanish Surrealist off an easel in the gallery’s front
window, and strode back onto the street—all in a matter of 30
seconds. 

Dennis Rae Fine Art had staged
an exhibition of some 30 works by Dalí. The thief’s target
was Burning
Giraffe, a hand-colored,
limited-edition etching done by the artist in
1967. 

Gallery director Rasjad Hopkins,
who was the only staff member on site that day, said the theft
likely happened while his back was turned. “He was in and out of there in a shot,” Hopkins
told TIME. “He probably did it in less than a minute.”
Hopkins noted that the work was insured. 

The gallery’s surveillance
camera was off at the time, but security footage from a hotel
across the street revealed a man dressed in a blue t-shirt and gym
shorts walking away with the etching under his arm. A woman who is
suspected to be the man’s accomplice loitered outside near the
gallery’s front door. 

The lock and cable meant to
secure the etching was also missing, suggesting that the thief may
have cased the location earlier, though Hopkins also posits that it
could have been removed for a showing the previous day and not
replaced by gallery staff. “I think it was a theft of opportunity,” the
director said.

The illustration, which depicts
a sickly giraffe engulfed in flames, among other beguiling figures,
is not the type of work that one could sell unnoticed, Hopkins
said.  

“I think that people would
know,” Angela Kellett, another director at the gallery,
told ABC7
News. “It’s a very small
edition of etchings, so the number, we know exactly what piece it
is, so now it’s a very hot item.” 

The post Dalí and Dash: A Thief Walked Into a San Francisco
Gallery and Ran Off With a $20,000 Etching by the Spanish
Surrealist appeared first on artnet News.