Flintlock

[HerbZ]

Back in the early 1970s some art thieves stole objects from both the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Taft Museum (a smaller art museum located in a Federalist Mansion that once belonged, as did most of the art collection in it, to the Taft family). From the Taft they stole what was then thought to be a Rembrandt painting (it has been since reconsidered as a work of one of his students) known as "Man Leaning On A Sill." From the Cincinnati Art Museum they stole that very same gold bowl once owned by King Darius I of Persia. The thieves' MO was the same in both robberies: during regular museum hours, men dressed like members of an outlaw motorcycle gang overwhelmed the guards and ran off with the art object.

The Darius Bowl was the first object stolen, and was recovered in a matter of weeks. It has always been believed, but never stated, that the Cincinnati Art Museum paid a ransom. Then the Rembrandt was stolen from the Taft Museum. It took about a month for the painting to be recovered, but no ransom was paid and the Cincinnati Police arrested several suspects at the time that they recovered the painting. Both Art Museums now have extensive state-of-the-arts theft prevention systems, and Cincinnati museum guards are able to snooze undisturbed (except for the occasional tourist asking questions).