{"id":36839,"date":"2012-10-24T13:18:30","date_gmt":"2012-10-24T17:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hautedesignnetwork.com\/?p=2549"},"modified":"2012-10-24T13:18:30","modified_gmt":"2012-10-24T17:18:30","slug":"building-design-blamed-for-multi-million-dollar-gallery-art-heist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newwebdev.wordpress-developer.us\/hauteresidence\/building-design-blamed-for-multi-million-dollar-gallery-art-heist\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Design Blamed For Multi-Million Dollar Gallery Art Heist"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday, October 16, the\u00a0Kunsthal\u00a0gallery in Rotterdam was robbed<\/a>; thieves made off with seven priceless paintings by world-renowned artists like\u00a0Picasso, Matisse and Monet. With millions of dollars in irreplaceable art missing, security experts are pointing the finger at the gallery’s avant-garde architecture for enabling the theft.<\/p>\n

The Kunsthal gallery, which was designed by legendary architect\u00a0Rem Koolhaas, featured an open concept, with priceless works easily accessible to the public.\u00a0In an interview with\u00a0Dutch newspaper\u00a0De Volkskrant<\/a>, security expert\u00a0Ton Cremers said;\u00a0“Once inside the building, thieves could easily walk through the entire museum. There were no extra compartments built for the expensive pieces.\u201d Elsewhere, museums like The Louvre in Paris isolate priceless pieces like Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa to ensure heightened protection.\u00a0In a further recrimination, Cremers criticized the Kunsthal’s\u00a0glazed design for giving the thieves a clear view of the museum’s interior layout from the outside.<\/p>\n

There is speculation the thieves hid inside the museum after closing time, exploiting the building’s design to avoid detection. In a recent article<\/a> on the theft, the New York Times referred to a report which appeared in the Dutch newspaper \u00a0The Algemeen Dagblad three months prior to the theft, wherein one of the museum’s visitors complained of having been accidentally trapped inside the museum after closing time.<\/p>\n