Art Heist of Cellini's Saliera: Part II

The hapless Museum Director gets taken for a ride.

Author’s Note: The following is Part II of the true story of the theft of Cellini’s Saleria—a $65 million table sculpture—from the Vienna Art History Museum in 2003. I am publishing this extraordinary true story as a summer divertimento for our paid subscribers. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to Focal Points. For just $5 per month, you can support us in our effort to research and report intriguing stories in the realms of public health policy, current affairs, organized crime, and—in this case—high culture. Because the former Vienna Chief of Police, Ernst Geiger, is a close friend, I was able to access information and documents that were not available to other reporters.

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Part II: In which the hapless Museum Director gets taken for a ride.

On August 22, 2003, a letter from “Mr. Green” arrived at the headquarters of the Uniqa Insurance Company. The envelope was addressed to the company’s general director and postmarked at the Vienna Airport on August 20. The one-page letter, typewritten in English, read as follows:

Dear Mr. Klien,

We were directed by the present owner of the saliera to contact your company in order to organize a discreet and frictionless delivery against a finders reward of five million euros (used 500- notes). (do not contact or involve police, government, the museum or any retired pseudo-detectives, no media contact).

as proof of the seriousness of this letter, some details about the saliera (the following is the original message of the owner, we could not translate everything): the fork is removable, the roof of the small temple is made as a spring cover, 3 of the 8 joint-balls at the bottom are missing. There is also an inventory number at the bottom of the saliera: 880 and finally we enclosed some tiny pieces of lake or enamel of the saliera.

l’omerta e leggi i rispettari, l’omu che parra pocu e sapienti.

If you agree, kindly insert an advertisement at “kurier” “various” dated sat. 13 of august for “Sara please come back.” The name of your messenger is mr. rossi. If we contact you or your messenger we will do it as mr. green. We will contact you during the next three weeks after your advertisement (it is the one occasion to get back the saliera) and you will be the rescuer of the saliera. if not, perhaps you will catch an innocent helper, don’t even consider cheating us.

Enclosed were dark brown fragments of what appeared to be enamel. Uniqa contacted Ernst Geiger, Chief of the Vienna Police, who had the letter examined for fingerprints and other biological traces, and the fragments compared with fragments found among the shattered glass of Saliera’s case. While no trace evidence was found on the letter, a comparison of the two samples yielded a perfect match, indicating that “Mr. Green” was probably for real.

La Saliera, Benvenuto Cellini, 1543

As requested, the notice was placed in the August 30 edition of daily newspaper Kurier:

DATED: Saturday 13 August 2003 received your message but have small problems with your request. Sara please come back. Alternatively call +33/613 296 789 and leave message. Signed Rossi.

The telephone number in France was set up by the British private intelligence agency MIG (Merchant Interest Group for Strategic Research & Corporate Intelligence) with whom Uniqa was consulting about the Saliera theft. It was critical that Mr. Green feel comfortable about calling. The more contact he made, the greater the likelihood he would reveal something about himself and his location. Unfortunately a reporter spotted the unusual English announcement with the intriguing plea “Sara please come back,” and soon the Saliera ransom attempt was all over the news. Mr. Green never called.

Who was Mr. Green, or rather, what could be inferred about him from his letter? A police translator analyzed it and concluded that, though the writer’s English was good, it wasn’t his mother tongue. The word “frictionless” appeared to be a direct translation of the commonly-used German word (reibungslos). It was also notable that he used the word “occasion” instead of “opportunity.”