San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-08-30
The Detroit Institute of Arts
Where the Mysterious Jewel
Robbery Occurred.

A Ii the great public museums the
~ world over have more or less valu-
= able collections of jewels and rare
stones. They are usually in glass cases
where visitors can approach and examine
them and they seldom seem to be closely
watched by museum attendants.
Why does it seldom happen that the val
liable gems in the public museums are
stolen?
At last this very thing has happened.
The Detroit Institute of Arts has been
robbed of one of its rarest and most costly
collections of gems, on which police de-
partment valuation of $4,000 has been
laced, though their real worth is far
greater.
1t was one of the many rare collections
that have lain unguarded in the big mu-
scum for years. The theft is believed to
have taken place more than two months
before it wis discovered Not clue
to the identity of the thief has been dis
covered, so clever was the theft scheme
worked out and carried through. Suspi-
cion, of course, fell on certain employees
of the museum, but nothing has been
found to substantiate this belief that it
was an 'fnside" job.
However, it was not crook of the
petty type, who might have walked up
to the case in which were the priceless
yems and a padded brick smashed the
glass casing and grabbed a fistful of
the stones and fled hurriedly from the
scene of his depreciation: The manner
in which the theft was carried out shows
that it was done after months of plan
ming and long weeks of the most careful
and painstaking work.
Miss Gertrude Gilmore, curator of the
children's department of the Institute OF
Arts and an expert on rare gems, discov-
cred recently that some of the jewels in
the famous Stearns collection appeared to
have been disarrayed. She called the at
tention of Clyde H. Burroughs, curator of
the museum, to this fact and hasty ex-
animation of the case containing the col
lection proved her suspicious to 1 true.
Further investigation showed that only
the more valuable stones had been re-
moved, and these had been replaced
with clever limitations of worthless glass.
One of the most valuable stones in the
collection, a sapphire, had been replaced
by an ordinary button from a woman's
dress 1t was of glass and blue in color,
though it had reposed there for weeks be-
fore the scrutinizing gaze of hundreds
of visitors TO the museum who never for
a moment doubted its genuineness.
Much time was taken in making the
substitutions, according TO Curator Bur-
roughs, for the thief took the greatest
pains to see that his limitations were of
the same general size, color and shape
as the genuine stones which were removed.
All in all, it must have taken months to
remove the handful of stones that were
taken from the collection, and it is also
believed that the theft was not completed
when it was discovered by Miss Gilmore.
Besides the removal of the stones, a
great deal Of time was expended in re-
moving the top of the case in which the
collection reposed in a manner that it
should not be discovered. The screws,
pinning down the glass top, had been re-
moved dextrously and the holes enlarged
SO that instead of removing them by I'M
screwing them, they could be taken out
by merely lifting them. When they were
replaced they appeared to be solidly en-
eased in the wood frame of the case.
Miss Gilmore stated, following the dis
covery, that she believed the thief had
been guided in his selection, not by a
knowledge Of rare gems, but by the labels
which marked each one in the case.
She arrived at this conclusion because
some of the labels had been displaced sew.
eral months before. Three labels of the
most valuable gems had accidentally been
mixed with labels of cheaper stones. In
these instances the valuable stones, bear
ing wrong labels, were no. disturbed. Had
these stones been taken, it is said, the ex
tent Of the value Of the theft would have
been doubled.
The collection was presented to the in
stitute by the late Frederic b. Stearns
mineralogist and explorer, and consisted
mostly Of emeralds and sapphires Thu
case in which il was contained was twelv,
feet long and had twenty screws on tn,
top.
II has been the custom of the institute
70 have only one night Waterman on guar,
at a time These watchmen have beer
selected through the Detroit City Civ
Service Commission. The watchman'
8