A very bizarre robbery occurred on the night of Thursday
week. Messrs. Agnew, the well-known picture-dealers, recently purchased the portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire, by Gains- borough, for £10,605, the highest price ever paid at auction for a portrait, and exhibited it at No. 39n Old Bond Street. On the morning of Friday week the picture was found to have disappeared, having been cut out of the frame, and it is supposed that some thief had hid himself in the room, cut out the picture in a very workmanlike manner, and passed it out of the window to a confede- rate in the street, escaping himself afterwards by a back-door. Messrs. Agnew have offered £1,000 reward for the discovery of the thief, but as yet no clue has been obtained by the police. It is difficult to imagine that a burglar with capacity enough to attempt such a feat would steal so utterly unsaleable an article as a picture known to every dealer in Europe ; while a personal enemy of Messrs. Agnew would have adopted the safer course of cutting the canvas to ribbons, and carrying away only a part. The presumption, therefore, is that the thief is a foreigner, who intends, from some safe retreat, to extort black-mail for the re- turn of the precious canvas. Should this prove to be the case, the great picture-owners of England should compensate Messrs. Agnew for an unqualified resistance, as if they yield, even to the extent of paying the reward before the thief is surrendered, no picture in the country will be safe. Plate is locked up, but the pictures in country-houses have hitherto been considered as safe as the book-cases or carpets.
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