Brazen Art Thief Steals Dali Work

An audacious thief posing as an art lover snatched a Salvador Dali watercolour and ink painting worth an estimated $US150,000 from a New York private art gallery this week.

Police said the man walked into the Venus Over Manhattan art gallery on Madison Avenue on Tuesday afternoon, posing as a “potential customer”.

“He removed the painting and he fled,” a police spokeswoman said.

Video surveillance cameras showed the man, in his mid-30s to mid-40s, wearing a black and white shirt and jeans, casually walking out with the painting sticking out of a shopping bag.

Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali’s 1949 Cartel des Don Juan Tenorio was on display as part of the gallery’s debut exhibition, which opened in May.