He thought he was stealing a simple pile of metal: the burglar unknowingly ends up with a work of art estimated at one million euros

L’atelier de l’artiste avait déjà été cambriolé en 2016. Pixabay

En 2023, l’atelier d’un artiste plasticien avait été cambriolé en région parisienne.

A loot at an unexpected price. In November 2023, in the Paris region, burglars entered the studio of Anselm Kiefer, an internationally renowned German artist, in the middle of the night. 900 kg of this metal classified as poor was stolen from him. A loot that usually sells for around a thousand euros. But not this time, reveals Le Parisien.

By having this pile of scrap metal appraised, a work of art representing a stack of books made of lead sheets, the burglars discovered that its value reached one million euros! An amount 100 times higher than their expectations.

One year in prison

Even crazier: according to our colleagues, in 2016 already, the German artist was the victim of a burglary at his studio. At the time, a block of marble weighing 12 tons and a 10-ton lead work had been stolen. And there too, the amount of the damage was

The thief, aged 55, was finally found thanks to his fingerprints in another case of fuel theft. Tried in immediate appearance, this Wednesday, September 18, by the criminal court of Meaux. This father of Roma origin living in a camp was sentenced to one year in prison.