> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Crimes of the Art - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/crimes-of-the-art-47/ - Published: 2016-01-27T00:58:57.000Z - Updated: 2025-11-24T15:58:44.000Z - Description: On this week’s art crime blotter: eight museum workers charged over King Tut's botched beard, thieves drive off with a trailer full of blue-chip art, and sculptures of a heart, a cheetah, and a hockey-playing beaver go missing. - Author: Benjamin Sutton - Tags: News, Art Crime, Crimes of the Art, King Tutkanhamen, Vandalism, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:17 (2016, 2017, part 1) ![King Tutankhamun’s burial mask at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo after it was reinstalled late last year following the restoration of its beard (photo by Mark Fischer/Flickr)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2016/01/art-crimes-king-tut-mask-fixed.jpg) King Tutankhamun’s burial mask at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo after it was reinstalled late last year following the restoration of its beard (photo by Mark Fischer/Flickr) [*Crimes of the Art*](http://hyperallergic.com/tag/crimes-of-the-art/) *is a weekly survey of artless criminals’ cultural misdeeds. Crimes are rated on a highly subjective scale from one “Scream” emoji — the equivalent of a vandal tagging the exterior of a local history museum in a remote part of the US — to five “Scream” emojis — the equivalent of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist.* ## King Tut’s Barbers Charged ![crimes-of-the-art-scream-4](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/02/crimes-of-the-art-scream-4.jpg) Eight employees of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo are due to be [charged with negligence](http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/24/africa/king-tut-broken-mask-charges/index.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) for a haphazard restoration of King Tutankhamun’s burial mask. The beard of the 3,300-year-old mask fell off under mysterious circumstances and was [clumsily reattached](http://hyperallergic.com/176892/king-tut-burial-mask-broken-glued-back-together/), potentially causing further damage to the prized artifact. **Verdict:** The Egyptian legal system makes the curse of the mummy look like a cakewalk. ## Art Trailer’s Trail Goes Cold ![crimes-of-the-art-scream-3](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/02/crimes-of-the-art-scream-3.jpg) A trailer containing artworks by Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Joan Miró, Keith Haring, and other goods cumulatively worth some $250,000 was [stolen](http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-trailer-stolen-matisse-20160119-story.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) from an industrial park in the Chatsworth area of Los Angeles. The theft happened in November of last year, but the LAPD’s art theft squad still has no leads. **Verdict:** Those must be some *pretty weak* works by Haring, Matisse, Chagall, Miró, and company if they barely add up to $250,000 in value. ## Chi Museum Not Shy about Suing ![crimes-of-the-art-scream-2](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/02/crimes-of-the-art-scream-2.jpg) The Art Institute of Chicago [filed a lawsuit](http://cookcountyrecord.com/stories/510658845-chicago-art-institute-accuses-level-3-construction-of-damaging-underground-vault?ref=hyperallergic.com) against four engineering and construction companies, claiming that one of the museum’s underground vaults had to be replaced after the companies damaged its roof while creating a concrete trench for telecommunications cables. **Verdict:** There’s a silver lining to this story — we now know the Art Institute has secret underground vaults. ## Hockey-Playing Beaver Statue Disappears ![crimes-of-the-art-scream-1](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/02/crimes-of-the-art-scream-1.jpg) A beloved steel sculpture of a beaver holding a hockey stick, long a fixture in the front yard of Edmonton residents David and Susan Holdsworth, [disappeared overnight](http://news.nationalpost.com/news/someone-has-stolen-a-hockey-stick-holding-metal-beaver-from-outside-an-edmonton-home?ref=hyperallergic.com). The sculpture, made by local artist Joe Renaud from scrap metal, was welded to a bench and supported by a pile that went several feet into the ground. **Verdict:** That’s a dam shame. ## Gandhi Gets Pro-ISIS Makeover ![The vandalized Gandhi statue in Dudu (screenshot via @ANI_news/Twitter)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2016/01/crimes-art-gandhi-isis.jpg) The vandalized Gandhi statue in Dudu (screenshot via @ANI\_news/Twitter) ![crimes-of-the-art-scream-1](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/02/crimes-of-the-art-scream-1.jpg) Vandals scrawled [pro-ISIS slogans](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/pro-isis-slogans-and-threats-of-an-imminent-terror-attack-daubed-on-mahatma-gandhi-statue-in-india-a6832071.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) and messages threatening an terrorist attack on a public sculpture of Mahatma Gandhi in the small city of Dudu in northwestern India. **Verdict:** If there’s any group against which Gandhi’s brand of non-violent protest wouldn’t work, it’s ISIS. ## All Roads Lead to Trashed Roman Ruins ![crimes-of-the-art-scream-4](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/02/crimes-of-the-art-scream-4.jpg) Roman tombs along the [Appian Way](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appian%5FWay?ref=hyperallergic.com) that date to the 2nd century BCE have been used for [illegal trash disposal](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/26/illegal-dumping-in-roman-catacombs-leaves-precious-ancient-site-polluted?ref=hyperallergic.com). Italian police investigating environmental pollution claims discovered them flooded by an underground lake of oil. **Verdict:** Sounds like a golden opportunity for one of Italy’s controversial [sponsored restoration projects](http://hyperallergic.com/138050/patrimony-acrimony-italy-turns-to-private-funding-for-restoration/) — make way for the “Mr. Clean Appian Way Tombs”! ## World’s Slowest Art Thief Steals Sculpture of World’s Fastest Animal ![crimes-of-the-art-scream-1](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/02/crimes-of-the-art-scream-1.jpg) A man [stole](http://www.ksbw.com/news/carmel-art-theft-caught-on-surveillance-video/37638858?ref=hyperallergic.com) a $24,000 sculpture of a cheetah bust by Richard MacDonald from the [Dawson Cole Fine Art Gallery](http://www.dawsoncolefineart.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com) in Carmel, California. The entire theft was caught on camera, as was the man’s reconnaissance visit the night before, when he initially took the sculpture and then put it back in its place. **Verdict:** Returning to the scene of the crime is dumb enough, but repeating the crime on successive nights is much, much dumber. ## Thieves Really Love Heart Sculpture ![crimes-of-the-art-scream-1](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/02/crimes-of-the-art-scream-1.jpg) Two men spent an hour outside Las Vegas’s Container Park unbolting “The Love Locket,” a public artwork in the shape of a heart and covered in locks, and then [made off](http://news3lv.com/news/local/caught-on-camera-thieves-vandalize-artwork-at-container-park?ref=hyperallergic.com) with half of the sculpture. Though many witnesses saw them unfastening the work, nobody stopped them. **Verdict:** You’d think all those locks would have made the thing harder to steal.