Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres’ “The Princesse de Broglie” at the Met Museum in New York may have been damaged by a rogue visitor. (1825–1860 (courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art)
On Halloween, while dressed as Dakota Johnson from her Architectural Digest home tour, I was approached by a blond man in all black clothing, a safety vest, and a tiara who needed directions.
“Louvre thief!” I shouted at him. “I thought you were arrested.” Drunk twenty-somethings in safety vests buzzed around us in the East Village, as if they’d answered some sort of casting call. It was official: the Louvre thief was 2025’s NPC (Non-Playable Character for those unfamiliar with Gen-Z English) costume of the year.
This major art heist extended its reach far beyond the art world and into the cultural vernacular as a low-budget costume option. While the Louvre break-in might be the most ubiquitous art-involved criminal behavior in the news right now, there are a few other thefts and petty vandalisms that Hyperallergic is keeping tabs on, including an incident at the Metropolitan Museum of Art this week and a 1,000-item heist in Oakland, California. I have the latest for you.
A Social Media Star among the Louvre suspects?
Parisian media reported that one of the four Louvre heist suspects in custody was a local social media “star” and motorbike enthusiast named Abdouldaye N, who goes by the alias “Doudou Cross Bitume” online and was once a security guard at the Centre Pompidou. “Star” might be a generous label, however, as accounts on YouTube and Instagram matching the name and description have less than 1,000 followers combined. If that’s the case, I guess you can call me a social media star too.
The Guardian observed that in several of Mr. Bitume’s uploads, he is “shown riding a Yamaha TMax, the particularly powerful make of mega-scooter used in the Louvre thieves’ getaway.” Equally ridiculous is the revelation that the password to the museum’s security system was, wait for it, “Louvre,” according to reports.
The Galerie d’Apollon at the Louvre Museum (photo by Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images)
A splash at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Eight minutes before the Met Museum closed on Monday, November 3, a 19-year-old “damaged multiple exhibits,” the New York Police Department confirmed in an email. The museum has not yet responded to Hyperallergic’s requests for information on which works were damaged, but tabloids reported that the individual threw water at “The Princesse de Broglie” (1851-53) by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, and “Madonna and Child with Saints” (c. 1520) by Girolamo dai Libri. He was charged with criminal mischief, police said.
Googly Eyes in Australia
Another 19-year-old in Australia reportedly stuck googly eyes on a recently installed public sculpture by architects Tom Proctor and Mitch Walker, nicknamed “Blue Blob,” the BBC reported. She appeared this week in court for property damage to the $89,000 sculpture, which is really called “Cast in Blue.” But the real damage seems to have been committed by the people who removed the googly eyes, tearing away the blue paint.
The 19-year-old charged with putting googly eyes on a sculpture in Australia made the altered artwork her Facebook profile photo. (screenshot Isa Farfan/Hyperallergic via Facebook)
How did they steal 1,000 collection items?
Last month, suspected thieves took around 1,000 collection items from the Oakland Museum of California that were stored at an off-site location. Police released video footage this week of two individuals apparently scoping out what appears to be a storage facility. It does not, however, show the thieves making off with the absurd number of objects.
Itty-bitty Picasso Found
Remember the iPhone-sized painting by Pablo Picasso that went missing in Spain last month, ahead of its scheduled shipment to a Granada museum? Turns out, a neighbor named Dolores had accidentally picked up the package, and it never made it onto the delivery van in the first place. Case closed for everyone except for Dolores, who anxiously gave an interview to El País last week to clear her name.
Lost and found: Pablo Picasso’s “Naturaleza muerta con guitarra (Still life with a guitar)” (1919) (courtesy CajaGranada Fundación)
