In a world of data theft and online scams, there is something thrillingly analogue about these audacious robberies
N
ow, let me begin by saying: stealing is bad. I don’t think you should steal things. It is a good way to get yourself sent to prison and it is morally wrong to take things that don’t belong to you. Cargo theft? Bad. Stealing priceless artworks from museums where they could be enjoyed by everyone? Bad.
And yet. And yet.
Last week, thieves made off with 12 tons of KitKats from a truck in Italy, while there was another art heist to follow the literal daylight robbery that occurred at the Louvre in Paris last year: this time, Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse paintings were stolen from a museum in northern Italy. These stories reliably go viral and prompt delightful phrases such as “major candy crime” in this very newspaper. And they go viral not, for the most part, because people are outraged, but because they find something thrilling about heists.
