An Unprofitable Robbery

Stealing art has always been as un profitable--and about as risky--as rustling elephants from a zoo. Just how varied are the frustrations of this form of larceny became quickly apparent last week to a band of thieves who carried away from a little college "picture gallery" in London's outskirts the most valuable art haul on record.

The gang members were vocationally talented; they drilled 48 holes to remove a panel in a stout oak door of the Dulwich College museum without tripping an alarm attached to the frame. Their taste in art was impeccable; they snatched eight old masters worth some $7,000,000, including three Rembrandts (among them the widely admired A Girl at a Window). What they had not figured out was who would pay them for their night's work. The college was heavily in debt, and in no position to afford a ransom. None of the works were insured, a fact that ruled out any hope that an insurance company would pay up to recover them.

To add to the gang's woes, the criminal underworld was less than patient with such a crime--especially when Scotland Yard began systematically raiding their haunts in a search for the paintings. Two days after the theft, a tip from the underworld brought police to an apartment where two Rembrandts and a Rubens were found under a bed. Another phone call--police theorize that this one was from the distressed gang itself--led them to a park, where they found the other paintings wrapped in newspaper under a holly bush.

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