A Dingbat German Student Broke Into an Australian Natural History Museum to Take Selfies With Dinosaur Skeletons

The lockdown has left many
museums more susceptible than ever to burglars—a fact laid
painfully bare by the brazen, much-publicized
theft of a prized Van Gogh painting from the Singer Laren Museum in the Netherlands
in March. 

But the latest lockdown
break-in, at the Australian Museum in Sydney two weekends ago, was
not about stealing masterpieces. At around 1 a.m. on a Sunday night, a German
student named Paul Kuhn broke into the venue after climbing nearby
scaffolding. Once inside, he walked around for 40 minutes taking
selfies with the natural history museum’s dinosaur displays,
including one with his head in a T. rex’s mouth.

Kuhn also made off with an
unidentified artwork and stole an employee’s cowboy hat, which he
proceeded to wear for the rest of his visit, like a really cool
dude. The whole thing was
caught on the building’s CCTV. 

New South Wales police picked
Kuhn up this past Sunday night and charged him with breaking and
entering and two counts of theft. He’s due in court June
1. 

After going public, the incident
drew instant comparisons to the 2006 Ben Stiller
vehicle Night at the Museum. But lest the hopes of a
film deal inspires any potential Kuhn copycats, authorities were
quick to dispel the notion.

“It’s not going to be a movie
producer knocking on your door,” deputy chief inspector Sean Heaney
told the Guardian. “It’s going to be [New South Wales] police
knocking on your door.”

Founded in 1827, the Australian
Museum is the oldest institution on the continent and among the
oldest natural history museums in the world. It has been closed to
the public since August of last year for renovations and was
scheduled to reopen this spring. The new reopening date has yet to
be announced.

The post A Dingbat German Student Broke Into an Australian
Natural History Museum to Take Selfies With Dinosaur Skeletons
appeared first on artnet News.