Prized Possessions

On a busy February Sunday in 1997, a young man and his girlfriend drift casually through the galleries at the Rubens House, an elegant museum in Antwerp, Belgium. Looking like tourists, they head for an ivory sculpture of Adam and Eve created by the Baroque artist Georg Petel. In between appearances by a guard, the man deftly uses a Swiss Army knife to unscrew the lid of the display case and remove the sculpture, placing it in the back waistband of his pants. Despite the bulge beneath his coat, he saunters out unnoticed. The sculpture is on his bedside table that night. It’s worth more than twice every house on his block.