In broad daylight and with complete peace of mind. This is how the thief who entered the emblematic Hotel Miguel Angel in Madrid, took three pictures from the wall and took them, along with a sculpture, hidden inside an opaque bag on May 30.
After almost eight months of investigations, the National Police is closer to finding the author of the robbery and has managed to reconstruct the tour you did when he fled with the valuable loot.
According to what CASO ABIERTO has learned, the Iberian Press Investigation and Events channel, that Sunday the man left the five-star hotel on foot, located in the heart of the capital, and entered in a subway station. There, camouflaged among other passengers, managed to go unnoticed and traveled, the police believe that loaded with works of art, to the south of Madrid, specifically to Móstoles.
Robbery on demand
One of the hypotheses that the agents consider is that the thief committed the robbery on behalf of another person and that, once he reached his destination, he could having had help of others involved
This medium has also known that among the stolen paintings there is one by the Valencian artist Joaquin Sorolla call ‘Puerto de San Sebastián’, a small oil on cardboard measuring 14.2 x 17.6 centimeters. The price of the four pieces that the thief appropriated amounts to more than 340,000 euros, as reported by El Periódico de Catalunya.
An opaque bag
The hotel security staff was the one who raised the alarm the afternoon of the robbery and notified the police. After reviewing the recordings of the security cameras, those responsible for the establishment communicated to the agents their suspicions about a man who they had seen leave the building “with an opaque bag” in which he could conceal the paintings and sculpture.
That day and since May 21, the Michelangelo exhibited an exhibition with more than 200 works of the Madrid gallery Lorenart, focused on contemporary Spanish paintings and sculptures and specialized in authors such as Joaquín Sorolla, Eduardo Chillida, Salvador Dalí, Juan Echevarría, Antonio Clavé, Menchu Gal and Óscar Domínguez, among others. In addition, the gallery, which has already held other art exhibitions at the hotel, is known for being a benchmark in sculptures by the Basque artist Jorge Oteiza.
No additional security
According to the sources consulted by OPEN CASE, the exhibition last May was guarded by Miguel Ángel’s security personnel, who then It was closed and did not welcome customers due to the pandemic, which is why additional “private security” personnel were not hired to reinforce the surveillance of works of art.
Neither the hotel nor the gallery, with which this medium has contacted, have wanted to make statements or comment on this circumstance, which the thief could have known and used to plan the coup.
Visited the hotel several times
Researchers believe that man visited and guarded the hotel and art gallery several times before executing the robbery, in order to analyze the number of employees working each shift, check the security of the exhibition, the influx of visitors and study the surroundings.
With all that data, he was able to trace his escape plan to escape underground, touring half the city, with a Sorolla and a loot of more than 340,000 euros under his arm.