This man was caught on surveillance video after the Dali was stolen. (DCPI)
Gee, that was easy.
The NYPD has cracked the case of the stolen Salvador Dali painting after it was mysteriously mailed back to New York from Europe, The Post has learned.
The $150,000 watercolor-and-ink original work arrived in pristine condition inside a box at JFK Airport yesterday morning, law enforcement sources said.
“It seems to be in exceptional condition,” said one source. “It was addressed to the gallery and it had a return address, but it appears to be bogus and the name is illegible.”
On Monday afternoon, somebody sent an email to Venus Over Manhattan gallery on the Upper East side, where the small 1949 “Cartel de Don Juan Tenirio” was stolen, the sources said.
The email read, “Cartel on its way back to you already,” and provided a tracking number.
The gallery notified NYPD detectives, who told the postal inspector to be on the lookout for it.
Early yesterday, postal inspectors received an alert that the painting had arrived at JFK and was being stored in a warehouse.
They notified customs agents and NYPD investigators, who confirmed the authenticity of the painting with the gallery.
The theft occurred at 4 p.m. last Wednesday, when a slick art thief snatched the painting right off a wall of the gallery, dropped it into a shopping bag and calmly strolled unnoticed out the front door, sources said.
The gallery’s owner, famed art dealer and radio baron Adam Lindemann, told the Post at the time that the heist occurred during business hours with a security guard present.
The thief had told the guard who was keeping an eye on him, “I want to take a picture of this painting.”
The guard said he could, but warned him not to use a flash.
Then the guard walked away. When he returned minutes later, the crook was gone and the wall was blank where the painting had hung.