--- title: How to Steal a Masterpiece description: Advice from the world's greatest art thief canonical: https://time.com/6286931/how-to-steal-a-masterpiece-advice-from-the-worlds-greatest-art-thief/ author: Michael Finkel article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-06-14T11:05:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:35.257Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How to Steal a Masterpiece og:description: Advice from the world's greatest art thief og:url: https://time.com/6286931/how-to-steal-a-masterpiece-advice-from-the-worlds-greatest-art-thief/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8d87903faa002af/698a3ddab3fce33aa90ca8e5/GettyImages-594771604.jpg?branch=production&width=824&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 824 og:image:height: 464 og:image:alt: Portrait of Madeleine de France by Corneille de Lyon og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Steal a Masterpiece twitter:description: Advice from the world's greatest art thief twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8d87903faa002af/698a3ddab3fce33aa90ca8e5/GettyImages-594771604.jpg?branch=production&width=824&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How to Steal a Masterpiece: Advice from the World’s Greatest Art Thief > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: John Legend Reflects on Trailblazing Performer and Civil Rights Activist Harry Belafonte [Watch (HLS stream): John Legend Reflects on Trailblazing Performer and Civil Rights Activist Harry Belafonte](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Qyj5RYPd.m3u8) (4:11)  _Published 2023-04-25. Artist John Legend Legend candidly reflected on the role Belafonte has played in his life, both personally and professionally at the TIME100 Summit._ by [Michael Finkel](https://time.com/author/michael-finkel/) ## Michael Finkel Jun 14, 2023 11:05 AM UTC  Portrait of Madeleine de France (1443-1495), eldest daughter of Francois I, Queen of Scots, first wife of Jacques V. Painting by Corneille de Lyon (Corneille de La Haye) (1500/1510-1574). Oil on wood. 0,22 x 0,31\. Castle Museum, Versailles, France Portrait of Madeleine de France (1443-1495), eldest daughter of Francois I, Queen of Scots, first wife of Jacques V. Painting by Corneille de Lyon (Corneille de La Haye) (1500/1510-1574). Oil on wood. 0,22 x 0,31\. Castle Museum, Versailles, France Leemage-Corbis by [Michael Finkel](https://time.com/author/michael-finkel/) ## Michael Finkel Jun 14, 2023 11:05 AM UTC First, says the art thief, forget about the movies. Skylight entries, smoke bombs, and shootouts may be cinematic, but unless you want to go to jail, these are terrible tactics for stealing art. Violence and destruction in a museum only minimize your odds of success. Art crime, according to [Stéphane Breitwieser](https://www.gq.com/story/secrets-of-the-worlds-greatest-art-thief), is best accomplished when no one knows that it’s happening. Breitwieser, a 52-year-old Frenchman, is one of the greatest art thieves of all time. He stole over 300 works from museums and cathedrals across Europe, worth an estimated two billion dollars. While I was preparing to write a book about him, Breitwieser granted me dozens of hours of interviews, during which he revealed in great detail his criminal mind. There’s never a need, he said, to force open a museum door, or crawl through a window, or rappel through a skylight. Don’t even come when the museum is closed. Ideally, arrive during lunch, when the crowds are thinner and the security staff rotates shorthanded to eat. Do not stress about parking the car – anywhere near the museum is fine. --- ### More from TIME --- Don’t come alone. You’ll need a trustworthy accomplice as lookout. Breitwieser’s partner was his long-time girlfriend, Anne-Catherine Kleinklaus. To blend in with the tourists, they always dressed sharply. Cooler weather, Breitwieser emphasized, is preferable for stealing. This way, you can wear an overcoat – just make sure that your stealing coat is at least one size too big, and that your pants are a little loose at the waist. The only tool necessary is a Swiss Army knife. Stash it in a pocket of your coat. The best way to gain access to a museum is through the main entrance. Purchase a ticket for you and your partner in cash. Walk in. Once inside, note the flow of visitors and check for surveillance cameras. Are the guards sitting or patrolling? Select a side room that’s out of the main river of tourists, preferably a gallery with a single entryway and no security camera or permanent guard. It’s not hard to find such a spot in many museums, especially smaller ones. As for the artwork to target, the piece should be small – for a sculpture, about the size of a brick; for a painting, no larger than a pizza box. More importantly, the work must be aesthetically attractive to you. Taking on all this risk for an object you don’t like, Breitwieser said, is the mark of a fool. Station your partner at the entrance to the room. Agree on a warning signal. For Breitwieser and Kleinklaus, theirs was a brief cough. If visitors are in the room, wait for them to exit. Then move swiftly to your targeted item. If the piece is in a display case, the access panel will probably be bolted shut. It doesn’t matter; you’re not going to pick it – that’s difficult and time-consuming. Instead, leave the lock fastened and use what Breitwieser called the “silicone slice.” Museum display cases are made of tempered glass or a clear acrylic like Plexiglas or Lucite, usually fused at the edges with silicone glue. A fine surgeon’s cut will release this seal, and by operating on a corner with the sharpest blade of your Swiss Army knife, hairline incisions both vertical and horizontal, the panels will loosen. If your partner coughs, stop cutting and push the panels together. They should revert to their original position. Whether it’s a guard or a tourist that enters, abandon your posts and gaze contemplatively at various works in the room. Allow the gallery to empty again, then return to the mission. Sometimes there will be two or three such disturbances. Don’t spend a suspiciously long time in one room – 15 minutes or so is the maximum. If there’s too much traffic, abandon the attempt. Try another room, or another day, or another museum. The beauty of a completed silicone slice is that it permits the panels to flex open just enough to snake a hand through. Grasp your desired piece and wriggle it out through the gap. Now, brush aside your overcoat and tuck the object snugly into the waist of your pants at the small of your back. Readjust your coat so the artwork is covered. There will be a slight lump, but Breitwieser promises that no one will notice. If you’re after a painting, the easy part is removing the work from the wall. Often all you have to do is lift it. The challenge is the frame; even on small paintings, most frames are too bulky to hide beneath an overcoat, no matter how roomy. Breitwieser’s solution: turn the painting over and place it face-down on a display case or the floor. He used his Swiss Army knife to manipulate the clips or nails on the back until the frame was detached. If there was no time for such diligence, he put the work back on the wall and left empty-handed. When he removed a frame, Breitwieser liked to stash it in the gallery behind a window curtain or under a piece of furniture. Empty frames, he said, were his calling card. To master frame removal, Breitwieser became an expert at putting frames on by apprenticing in a high-quality frame shop. To comprehend the degree to which museum guards actually pay attention, he worked as a guard one summer. Any good thief, he said, should prepare as thoroughly. A painting that’s free of its frame, Breitwieser warned, is as vulnerable as a newborn. With extreme care, place the painting at your back, cushioned between your shirt and overcoat. Now leave the museum with your partner. No matter how covert your actions, the theft will likely be noticed quickly, triggering an emergency response. The police will be called. The museum could be locked down, and all visitors searched. Hustle to the museum’s main exit, but never run, inside the museum or out, even if you hear police sirens approaching – especially then. Walk to your car, place the stolen work gently in the trunk, and drive off. Do not speed! The last thing you need now is to be stopped by a cop. Once at home, put the work in a place where no one might accidentally see it. Breitwieser and Kleinklaus stashed their loot in the bedroom they shared, which they always kept locked. Admire your stolen work to your heart’s content, but one thing you absolutely can not do, Breitwieser said, is sell it. Trying to sell a stolen piece for money is how most art thieves get caught. Police detectives who specialize in art theft are trained to uncover these transactions. If you need cash, said Breitwieser, get a job. Money can be made with far less danger than art crime. Steal all the art you want. Starting in 1995, Breitwieser and Kleinklaus committed an average of one theft every two weeks for seven years. But it’s probably best to rid yourself of any social or moral conscience you might have. Or, you can do as Breitwieser did, find a reason to justify your actions. Rather than an art thief, Breitwieser considered himself an art liberator, freeing masterpieces from uncomfortable and crowded confines. This way, stealing from a museum – one of the miracles of modern society, offering public access to priceless works of communal heritage – won’t bother you at all. Also, it would be best if you did not have any friends or relatives, or need a repair person, because you can never invite anyone into your home. Finally, do not make any mistakes, either while stealing or hiding art. Being human, you may find this impossible. In which case, be prepared to spend time in jail. Breitwieser was imprisoned for years. Accept that you may have a criminal record for life. Or, instead, you can just leave the work in a museum and visit it whenever you like. ## Transcript So I unfortunate that start with some sad news as you know, but as I'm not sure everybody else knows. I we just got the sad news that Harry Belafonte has died. And so I want it, I want to give you a moment to tell us what your reaction to that news was and how other artists can carry on his legacy God that we had Harry Belafonte for 96 years. He Inspired me so much. Personally he became a friend of mine in the last 10 years or so we spend some private time together. I learned At His Feet basically about all the great work, he's done over the years and if you think about what it means to be an artist and an activist, he was literally the epitome of what that was and I don't know if people know how much he did. So Gifted as an artist as a performer, but used his platform and almost a subversive way because he would sneak messages in their revolutionary messages. When people just thought he was singing about, Good Times in the islands, he was always like infusing messages of protest and Revolution and everything you did. And not only that, but he used his resources, he's one of the most successful artists of his time. He used those resources to fund the Civil Rights Movement. He would show up with bags of cash for dr. Martin Luther King jr. And other people who were marching with him. When people's lives are being taken for support, that movement, entertainers, lies were being taken activist lives were being taken, Jewish. Northerners would come down to the South and help with the movement and they would get killed. There were so many people who put their lives on the line for us to be able to vote for us to be able to have equal rights in this country and Mr. Bellefonte was one of those people. He saw a lot of his friends get killed. He gave so much live through so much helped us grow as a nation and as a world and we just all should be so grateful that he lived such a long powerful revolutionary life. So that leads us into something. I was planning to ask you about anyway, which is what do you think, is the role of Music in the fight for social justice today? I mean, who do you think will be remembered in fifty or sixty years? The way we remember Harry Belafonte today, we have the power to create art. That shines a light on what's happening in the world Nina Simone said, we have a duty to reflect the times in, which we live, and I believe great artists are able to do that. We're able to tell the stories I write the songs. Highlight the issues that will make the world pay attention. And I think art can do it in a Transcendent way. It's not the same as journalism is not the same as other forms of of kind of nonfiction media. It has the power to bring people together transcend boundaries and I think if we use that power for good, it can be really really important. And like I said, Harry Belafonte did it in his art but he also did it with his resources, put his life on the line. Was a great adviser great leader of protest. 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