By Tim Binnall
A woman in Paris was busted for a bizarre incident wherein she stole a jacket that was showcased in an art museum exhibit and then had a tailor alter the pilfered piece so that she could wear it herself. The very weird 'caper,' which came to light this week, reportedly occurred back in March at the city's Musée Picasso as it was hosting an exhibition of artist Oriol Vilanova's work known as 'Old Masters.' Consisting of a blue jacket that had postcards featuring pictures of Picasso's work stuffed into its pockets, the artwork (which can be seen below) was hung on a wall for display, which apparently caused some confusion for one particular patron, who suspected that the clothing was simply something destined for the lost and found.
Thinking that she had just fortuitously stumbled upon a jacket that was not only perfectly fine, but also free, the woman proceeded to take possession of the piece and left the museum. Amazingly, she then brought the clothing to a tailor and had it altered so that it would fit her in the future. Meanwhile, museum officials realized that the piece had been stolen and scoured security camera footage to find the culprit. Fortunately for them, the case was cracked rather quickly as the self-proclaimed "passionate" patron of the arts actually returned to the museum a week later for another visit and administrators immediately recognized their prime suspect.
As if that were not enough of a lucky break for the museum, it just so happened that police were also there at that moment as they were still investigating the case. As such, they promptly arrested the woman, who admitted that she took the jacket, but insisted that she had no idea that it was actually artwork. Perhaps due to the fact that she returned to the scene of the crime blissfully unaware of what she had done the week prior, police believed her story and opted to simply issue her a warning rather than press charges. As for the jacket, cops managed to recover the piece, but it was essentially destroyed during the journey from artwork to gently used coat.