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WITH APOLOGIES ALL ROUND

Pasa WAS CONSTERNATION in the art world. Diabolical thefts of
famous pictures were occurring almost daily. Paintings disappeared ©
as if by magic from the walls of art galleries everywhere. In the
Louvre, six weeks after the outrages began there were more empty
frames than pictures. In London, Rome, New York, and Prince Rupert -
the situation was equally distressing. What made the robberies more
uncanny was the fact that disappearances seemed to occur most fre- |
quently from those places which were most heavily guarded.

Eventually, even the general public was violently aroused and the
headline, “‘Another Art Steal,” elbowed Hitler and Mussolini off the
front pages. Secret service men from all countries were mobilized to
track down the culprits. Scotland Yard officers, G-men, Gestapos, ©
Mounties, and private sleuths were literally falling over one another in
an effort to solve the mystery. But even the smartest detectives, equipped
with the very latest in lie-detectors, were completely baffled. The most
promising clues ended only in blind alleys. A number of suspicious Sur-
realists were detained for a time and given the third degree but no con- |
nection with the disappearance of the pictures could be charged against
them. :

Still the thefts went on. Seven large canvases were taken in one
evening from the National Gallery at Ottawa. The Canadian govern-
ment, acting with customary promptness, instantly appointed a Royal |
Commission of six learned judges (at $100 a day each) to investigate and
report on the whole situation. (A year later the Commission brought:
down its report which stated in 300,000 words, in French and English,
that the pictures were gone and they didn’t know where.) After months
of continued effort the possibility of a solution of the mystery seemed
as remote as ever. The belief began to grow that the thefts were per-
formed by some super-natural forces. People in certain parts of the
eastern United States pointed apprehensively in the direction of t ¢
planet Mars while the natives of central Australia whispered that the
whole affair could be laid at the door of the evil spirit, Oogly-Moogly.

Then one day the awful discovery was made. The janitor at
the Hague Peace Palace (which everyone had forgotten about) reportec
the find. As he explained later from a dozen news-reels, the shock almost
made him swallow his pipe. The shock was also felt and enlarged upg
by the corps of officials, camera-men and radio announcers who swarme
into the city. Art critics staggered from the Palace and began looking
for dictionaries to hunt up new adjectives. One of the first to view th
discovery was the President of the Royal Academy who bore up unde:
the terrible emotional strain like a true Briton. \