he s going back and forth about a half a dozen times, again, passing things that any art expert would say my god, these are two raphaels, small and portable. why wouldn t you take those? it s a great mystery to the theft. another great mystery is this painting by edward manet. the oil painting was taken from the blue room on the first floor. it hung right below manet s portrait of his mother. it was about 8 by 10 and it was in a gold, guilded frame and it was here. even though motion detectors picked up the thooef s trail by the instance on the first floor and all throughout the second floor, there are no records of anyone entering the blue room. rick abbot says in the time he worked at the museum, the motion detectors never failed. but he also says it wasn t impossible to avoid the detectors. in fact, he knew exactly how to do that.
because they didn t pack up and leave at that point. they continued on with their crime, and they took their time. one thief stayed behind in the dutch room and carefully removed some of the paintings from their matting and frames. although two of the rembrandt s were simply cut out of their frames. the other thief headed out of the room, back down the hallway. goes to the early italian room, the raphael room, all the while, passing incredibly priceless art. famous art. raphaels, important chinese pieces, frangelica and walked back to the short gallery where the thief takes a napoleonic finial from a flag that napoleon s first regimen carried. he s going back and forth about a half a dozen times, again, passing things that any art expert would say my god, these
passing things that any art expert would say my god, these are two raphaels, small and portable. why wouldn t you take those? it s a great mystery to the theft. another great mystery is this painting by edward manet. the oil painting was taken from the blue room on the first floor. it hung right below manet s portrait of his mother. it was about 8 by 10 and it was in a gold, guilded frame and it was here. even though motion detectors picked up the thooef s trail by the instance on the first floor and all throughout the second floor, there are no records of anyone entering the blue room. rick abbot says in the time he worked at the museum, the motion detectors never failed. but he also says it wasn t impossible to avoid the detec r detectors. in fact, he knew exactly how to do that. it was a game he used to play at night to help pass the time on his rounds.
going back and forth a half dozen times, again, passing things that any art expert would say, my god, these are two rafaels, small and portable. why wouldn t you take those, it s a great mystery to the theft. reporter: at 2:41 a.m., the door to the museum opens and closes. the thieves were gone. once they believe, they re never heard from again. reporter: the next morning, rick was relieved to be found. and to be alive. but he knew almost immediately that he was a suspect. i knew i would. i mean, i opened up the door. you know? i mean once i sat sat down with the fbi, i think the first thing i said is what do you want to know? because i knew. i mean, i was like, well, i m the guy who opened up the door. they re obviously going to be looking at me. reporter: the fbi certainly was looking at him. was it an inside job? how else could the thieves have pulled this off? and who else did the fbi suspect?
connected to the outside world. but did the thieves know that as well? because they didn t pack up and leave at that point. they continued on with their crime. and they took their time. same path backwards. goes through the early italian room, the rafael room, all the while passing incredibly priceless art. famous art. rafaels, important chinese pieces. and walk back through to the short gallery, where the thief takes five sketches by degas, and a napoleonic finial from the top of a flag that napoleon s regiment carried. throughout his actions, he s going back and forth a half dozen times, again, passing things that any art expert would say, my god, these are two rafaels, small and portable. why wouldn t you take those, it s a great mystery to the theft. reporter: at 2:41 a.m., the door to the museum opens and closes. the thieves were gone. once they leave, they were never heard from again. reporter: the next morning, rick was relieved to be found. and to be alive. but he knew