Museum in a Suitcase

It’s been six or seven decades since I appeared in a Halloween costume. Encouraged by my daughter, who now lives in a neighborhood of Halloween enthusiasts, I am joining those who are rightly inspired by the recent theft of art from the Louvre Museum in Paris. Thieves already wear masks, so finding a costume should be simple: a black cape, a backpack bulging with empty frames, a few tools to pry pictures off walls, maybe a paintbrush to repair hastily removed from a vitrine, and maybe a beret, just to place this thief in Paris.

Not that I will be the only art thief this year. The theft from the Louvre is just the latest example of how committed art thieves can enter and steal notorious artifacts - in this case, bejeweled crowns, within eight minutes (some reports say less than seven; some say eight-ish) during opening hours of a museum. (OK, they did drop a bejeweled crown on their way out, but it seemed pretty easy to collect over $100 million of precious jewels on a Sunday morning.)

A few months ago, our book club read The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel and gained an appreciation of the fragility of museum collections. While reading the book, I wandered into a notable Austin museum and considered how I might steal the artwork if I were an art thief. Aside from feeling a bit weird about this endeavor, I did manage to find access points that were lightly guarded and exhibits designed without consideration as to how easy it might be to remove them from a wall. Sure, there are plenty of security cameras, but as we know now, cameras can’t catch everything all the time.

Thievery aside, museums continue to be one of my obsessions, and a museum is the focus of my experience design project certificate.