"Paintings With Personality"

     When I was a teenager (about 100 years ago) I worked at a movie theater in California. I was one of the girls who walked around with flashlights telling everyone to get their feet off the seats. Some of you will remember those days, and some won’t. Some nights instead of walking the aisles, I worked the concession stand or I was in a little outdoor booth in front of the theater, selling tickets. It was the nights when I was outside in the little booth that my imagination began to run away with me. I would think about a masked, armed gunman coming to hold me up, sitting there alone in my booth. I didn’t have any delusions about saving the day. No, I was going to shove all the money at him and run fast in the other direction.

            Jumping ahead to the present, January 2015.  Cait Munro wrote an article in Artnet News concerning the Salmagundi Art Club, in NYC. Most of us are familiar with the Salmagundi Club, where the American Watercolor Society show is held every spring. In an article, dated January 16, Ms Munro wrote that a man entered the Salmagundi Club and unlocked a liquor cabinet with a screwdriver then pilfered a $30 bottle of Ketel One vodka, a $43 bottle of Grey Goose vodka, and a $67 bottle of Remy Martin

            A heroic (although, maybe not so smart) young male employee noticed the crime and took off after the thief, chasing him several blocks, calling 911, jumping in front of taxis to keep the villain from getting away in a cab, and getting his foot run over in the process. The bad guy with bottles of alcohol weighing him down, was trying to hail a cab. Maybe he was hoping to rip off the cab driver as well.

            So, what we have is a villain who can run while carrying three full bottles of booze and hail a cab all at the same time. His pursuer, on the other hand, could run full tilt, dial 911, jump in front of taxi cabs, and keep going when his foot was run over.

            The Salmagundi’s gallery manager wanted everyone to know that they didn’t support their employees in efforts to chase after thieves. Ms Munro ended her article with a moral: “Note to thieves: don't mess with the Salmagundi Club.”

            I’m wondering why a ‘bad guy’ would steal alcohol with an entire gallery of art hanging on the walls. Maybe he was having a party later and needed some liquid refreshment. I also wonder what the ‘good guy’ would have done if art had been taken.

Let’s have your take on this, comment below.

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