In a beautiful yet tragic moment of irony in 1969, seven paintings worth $500,000 overall were stolen from art dealer Stephen Hahn’s Madison Avenue gallery, while he was in a conference with the board of directors at the Art Directors Association of America — discussing art theft.
The robbers picked an “unpickable” lock in order to access Hahn’s collection, and made off with highly valuable pieces by the likes of Monet and Pissarro. At the time, Hahn bitterly joked that the thieves had “conservative” taste in art, as they had not taken his more avant-garde pieces, including one by Picasso.