Thief Strolls Out of Gallery With $150K Dali Painting

Some art thieves use ingenious methods, some use brute force—and some just casually walk out with stuff. Police are looking for a thief who swiped a $150,000 Salvador Dali painting from a New York City gallery using the latter approach, reports the New York Daily News. The thief, who was captured on surveillance cameras, posed as a customer and asked a guard if he could take a photo of Dali's 1949 "Cartel des Don Juan Tenorio."

The guard agreed but when he was distracted by another customer, the thief slipped the 11-inch watercolor into his bag, took the elevator from the third floor to the ground level, and walked away. The theft took place at art collector and radio mogul Adam Lindemann's new Venus Over Manhattan gallery, which only opened a few weeks ago. (More Salvador Dali stories.)