Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-03

become
lections and passonatey devoted to the fasclnat
ing task of adding thereto to have lost all moral
sense There plenty OF such people: men pos
sessed of wealth. rank and learning, of the Hottest
sense of honor and integrity every other respect
but absolutely unbalanced where their collections
are concerned and ready to resort even to crime to
supply some piece that is wanting to complete their
beauty.
Mania to Complete Their Collections
THUS some wears ago a very valuable miniature
was unscrewed from it's place the walls of the
National Gallery in London and carried off. There
were other miniatures of different period and greater
intrinsic value beside it which, one would have
imagined, would have appealed more strongly toa
dishonest connosseur, to an ordinary cr11nl-
nal but were left untouched. The only inference is
that the thief needed that particular miniature,
and not any other to complete what must have
been costly collection. and had not hesltated at
robbery to accomplish his end
Another English cOnnoISSeur, well known and
universally respected, one day visiting ex-
hibition, the gem of which was a certain fragile
curio which, it was known, had only one duplicate IN
the world; but nobody was aware who possessed
the other. While examining it. it suddenly slipped
through his fingers and smashed to atoms on the
floor. When this connoisseur died some years after
ward and his collection into the market, 1T
was found that the counterpart of the curO he had
thus broken figured in its catalogue; and those
who recalled the incident became convinced that he
had purpOsely smashed 1T In order that his own
specimen might be unique. 1t IS now in the British
Museum
Then too what motive could any ordinary thief
tides of the Louvre at Paris the two-foot marble
of the Egyptian goddess Isis This ancient
curio from the land of the Nile not OF transcend
value. There were plenty OF other exhibits
within reach of UNNECESSARILY greater worth and
far easier to carry off The only explanation
of this strange robbery that suggests itself mature
thought is that it must have been committed by
some mentally unbalanced connOisseur devoted to
Egyptoogy, who required just this particular piece
to complete his collection unless, indeed, 1t Is true
as rumor tells that the ancient cult of Isis has been
revived after the lapse of several thousand years on
the banks of the Seine and that its twentieth cen
turv devotees needed the image of their goddess for
purposes of worship.
The Louvre has been particularly unfortunate in
the matter of robberies Or perhaps it would be
correct to say that the thefts to which 1t has
been subjected have through some means or other
attained a greater degree of publicity than those
suffered by other museums. Owing to the immense
value of the collections which comprise the former
crown Jewels of France, the most extraordinary and
ingenious OF protection have been adopted by
the management-n spite of which the robberles
continue just cheerfully and mvsterlously
Lately the Minister of Fine Arts has ordered that
the guardians night should be reinforced by
of carefully trained fox terriers, selected for their
peculiar watchfulness. Yet this to be
without avail, leading to the inference that the
thefts are perpetrated by day and not at night.