NEW YORK — A $100,000 painting by Marc Chagall was the target of a smash-and-grab caper on Madison Avenue while Carlton Fine Arts was closed on the Jewish high holiday Yom Kippur.

The business’ owner, Charles Saffati, is offering a five-figure, no-questions-asked reward for the return of the canvas titled “Eve” that features two women embracing.

Chagall has two large murals with the same theme hanging permanently in the Grand Hall at the Metropolitan Opera House.

“The robbers must have been smart enough to know that we would be closed for the holiday,” noted Saffati. The thieves smashed a window to break in.

He added, “Mayor (Eric) Adams has to wake up and smell the bagels. First it was drugstores and supermarkets, then Gucci and Hermes, and now these street thugs are targeting high-end art galleries.”

Saffati isn’t depending on the NYPD. “I have hired two round-the-clock armed guards and installed museum quality motion detectors to watch over the Warhols, Basquiats and Picassos.”

The gallerist noted, “This piece will be impossible to resell as its instantly recognizable, like the Mona Lisa. If these hoodlums haven’t already dumped it for drug money, I hope they’ll return it and take the cash reward.”

The gallery’s next opening is for photographer Bonnie Lautenberg, the widow of former Sen. Frank Lautenberg, whose show features images of Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn.

****

Eric Roberts has a good reason to act in “Love Goomba Style,” a play by Vincent Gogliormella.

...continued

©2023 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.