Saliera postscript

And a strange one it is:

THE thief who made off with one of Benvenuto Cellini’s most valuable artworks got a trifle arrogant. He sent his police pursuers a text message: “Thank you for your efforts. We will get back to you shortly.”

It was enough to trace Robert Mang’s telephone, and yesterday the man known as a “gentleman thief” received four years in jail for stealing the 16th-century golden salt cellar sculpted by the Italian master. . .

Tears flowed from Mang’s eyes as sentence was pronounced by Judge Walter Stockhammer. But that did not stop almost a hundred women from surging towards the convicted art thief from the public gallery of the Vienna court.

Mang, 51, the owner of a security company, has become a celebrity in Austria. More than a thousand women have sent him letters in prison, many enclosing photographs of themselves in bikinis, and fan websites have been set up.

Posted by David on September 7, 2006 8:48 PM