‘Aladdin’s cave’ of stolen art found from 20-year spree

FRENCH police are trying to track down the owners of hundreds of works of art stolen by a compulsive thief who went on a 20-year binge in hotels, museums, shops and galleries.

Officers found the works when they raided the 45-year-old’s apartment in Avignon and came across what they described as an “Aladdin’s cave” of art.

“There were pieces everywhere, piled on top of each other,” said Captain François Toulouse, the head of departmental security in the local Vaucluse region.

Police photographed more than 500 paintings, sculptures, precious books and even vinyl records included in the haul, and have put them in an online catalogue alongside an appeal for their owners to come forward. The suspect, who police have not named, stuck notes to many of the pieces with the date and location of the theft and often with an estimated value.

The stealing binge was mostly carried out in the Vaucluse area but it also took him as far as Paris and even London, police said.

They were not immediately able to say which of the works was taken when the suspect visited the UK.

He was caught when the receptionist at a hotel recognised him from a previous visit. “He stole purely for pleasure, for the buzz he got from the act, and he never sold the stuff he stole but rather piled it up in his home,” Captain Toulouse told Le Parisien newspaper.

“He would wear a big coat and a hat and was able to make off with very heavy objects such as a marble sculpture that weighed 40 kilos,” he said.