The New Yorker Radio Hour

For a French Burglar, Stealing Masterpieces Is Easier Than Selling Them


Listen Later

Vjeran Tomic has been stealing since he was a small child, when he used a ladder to break into a library in his home town, in Bosnia. After moving to Paris, he graduated to lucrative apartment burglaries, living off the jewels he took and often doing time in prison. He became known in the French press as Spider-Man, and he began to steal art. Tomic has a grand sense of his calling as a burglar; he considers it his destiny and has described his robberies as acts of imagination. He eventually carried a truly epic heist: a break-in at the Musée d’Art Moderne, in Paris, in which he left with seventy million dollars’ worth of paintings. But selling these masterpieces proved harder than stealing them, and that’s where Spider-Man’s troubles began. The contributor Jake Halpern tells Vjeran Tomic’s story; excerpts from Tomic’s letters from prison are read by the actor Jean Brassard.  

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The New Yorker Radio HourBy WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

  • 4.2
  • 4.2
  • 4.2
  • 4.2
  • 4.2

4.2

5,495 ratings


More shows like The New Yorker Radio Hour

View all
On the Media by WNYC Studios

On the Media

9,115 Listeners

The Book Review by The New York Times

The Book Review

3,851 Listeners

This American Life by This American Life

This American Life

90,718 Listeners

Fresh Air by NPR

Fresh Air

38,148 Listeners

The New Yorker: Fiction by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

The New Yorker: Fiction

3,313 Listeners

The Political Scene | The New Yorker by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

3,936 Listeners

The New Yorker: Poetry by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

The New Yorker: Poetry

497 Listeners

The Gray Area with Sean Illing by Vox

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

10,684 Listeners

The New Yorker: The Writer's Voice - New Fiction from The New Yorker by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

The New Yorker: The Writer's Voice - New Fiction from The New Yorker

2,097 Listeners

In The Dark by The New Yorker

In The Dark

27,504 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

111,562 Listeners

Radio Atlantic by The Atlantic

Radio Atlantic

2,304 Listeners

Stay Tuned with Preet by Preet Bharara

Stay Tuned with Preet

32,384 Listeners

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat by New York Times Opinion

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

6,737 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

15,174 Listeners

The Interview by The New York Times

The Interview

1,451 Listeners

Critics at Large | The New Yorker by The New Yorker

Critics at Large | The New Yorker

579 Listeners