Even Thomas Crown—filmdom’s favourite art thief—might find Europe’s increasingly brazen heists a bit too hopeless. Since the audacious Louvre theft last October, burglars have stolen a diamond necklace in Austria, Bronze Age artefacts in Spain, and art from two Italian museums. The latest was a record of sorts. Last week, thieves made away with impressionist paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir worth more than $10 million from a museum in southern France in less than 5 minutes. Before heists move more of what can be considered the world’s heritage into the private spaces of collectors who don’t flinch from buying art of dubious provenance, more of it should be made publicly available through digital platforms. It’s time to revive the art-for-all movement.
