This Greek Art Heist Should Be Made Into a Forgettable Prestige TV Show

In a dramatic conclusion to a museum heist that shocked the art world nearly a decade ago and will probably be adapted by Netflix for the screen sometime in the next few years, a suspect has been arrested for the theft of Pablo Picasso’s “Head of a Woman” and Piet Mondrian’s “Landscape with a Mill” paintings from the Athens National Gallery in 2012.

The culprit, a 49-year-old Greek man who worked in home construction and painting and could conceivably be played by John Stamos in a career-turning move, confessed to the crime and told police how he pulled off the escapade with enough flair to make for a thrilling cinematic scene. For six months, he said, he learned the patterns of the museum’s security guards and staff. Early one morning, he set off the alarm system several times to either, according to different reports, lure guards to other parts of the building or cause them to shut off the alarm system. The thief then stripped the paintings from their frames and absconded with the Picasso, the Mondrian, and a 16th-century Guglielmo Caccia sketch in just seven minutes, which could be condensed into two suspense-filled minutes onscreen, complete with a brief chase sequence inspired by real events.

Per BBC, the man said he had no intention of selling the paintings, which would be a great redeeming quality to add some pathos to the character based on him. Maybe flesh out a lifelong obsession with art and beauty, one that unfortunately his family’s socioeconomic circumstances prevented him from exploring to his heart’s content. Authorities recovered the Picasso and Mondrian paintings, wrapped in plastic and in good condition, from a dried-up gorge outside Athens. The suspect said the Caccia sketch had been damaged and so he had flushed it down the toilet. But, of course, the faint possibility that the thief lied and the artwork is still out there could make for a tantalizing sequel…