Time doesn’t pay

November 5, 2008 - 5:21 PM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Art, Crime 

Marie Antoinette sans pocket watchIn a bizarre tale involving old time pieces, a notorious super-thief, a former queen of France and an Israeli woman living in LA, The Associated Press recently published a report on the recovery of items stolen in Israel’s most damaging heist ever in terms of value. As far as intrigue goes, the story may rival the news from July about Kafka’s lost writings possibly being horded in a cat- and mildew-filled Tel Aviv apartment.

So here’s the deal. A collection of 106 clocks was stolen from Jerusalem’s L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art back in 1983. One of the pieces in the collection, a gold and rock crystal pocket watch made by renowned watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet for French queen Marie Antoinette (pictured), was worth over $30 million alone.

And the authorities were stumped – until 2006, when the museum told investigators that they’d bought back some of the collection from an anonymous American woman. After some digging, the trail led to Los Angeles resident Nili Shamrat, the widow of one Naaman Diller, a criminal, watch-loving mastermind who stole much high-profile contraband in Israel over the years before passing away in the US four years ago. When local police went to Shamrat’s home to interview her, they saw some of the clocks from the collection around her house. A confession that Diller had told Shamrat about the heist on his deathbed soon followed, and now a media gag order has been lifted.

Investigator Oded Yaniv seems honored to have been involved, expressing admiration for Diller:

“He was a legendary robber. He was very different, very intelligent, and had a unique style,” Yaniv said. “We are all disappointed that we don’t have the chance to sit and talk to him and investigate him. We feel like we missed out on that.”

Ah, if only….

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