Art theft is a needlessly destructive and pointless crime because few of the works are ever salable after they’ve been stolen. The myth immortalized in the James Bond movie, Dr. No, has evil billionaires paying thieves to acquire priceless works that mere money cannot buy.

To date, there are no known cases of this having happened. Nonetheless, there was a terrible theft of 17 works at the Castelvecchio Museum last night which has caused one local official to revive the canard:

“They were professionals; they knew what to take and they knew the museum”, commented the mayor of Verona, Flavio Tosi, who stayed at the scene until late in the night. “Eleven masterpieces were stolen, along with other minor works”, Tosi said, stressing that “it must have been on commission, because they acted professionally, and knew what they were looking for”. “Among the paintings stolen,” he concluded, “there are masterpieces by Mantegna, Rubens and Pisanello; basically the most valuable works on display”.

Castelvecchio: 17 Major Artworks Stolen  (Corriere.it)