Chapter 1118 Florence (Part 2)
Campbell thought that these twelve clumsy paintings were twelve hidden master works. In his opinion, the owner of this place, Bronte, deliberately used his own paintings to cover up these master works, but he was unwilling to reduce the style of these master works and put them together with those clumsy works, so he forced the twelve paintings to hang in this exhibition room that only master works can enter.
"Nazi legacy." Campbell suddenly had an idea in his mind, and his eyes became a little strange when he looked at the twelve paintings.
In his opinion, Bronte would use such troublesome methods to deal with these twelve paintings, rather than displaying these master's works openly and enhancing the popularity of his museum, mainly because these paintings are shameful. If these shameful works of art are either stolen goods from other museums, they are the legacy of the Nazis during World War II.
During World War II, the Nazis confiscated a large number of artworks from museums and private hands in various countries. With the defeat of Germany, most of these artworks had returned to their original owners, but a large part of them were still missing. These unknown artworks are commonly known as Nazi heritage. All countries around the world are consistent in the handling of these Nazi heritages, that is, no matter who they appear in the hands of, the local government has the responsibility to confiscate them and return them to their original owners.
Over the years, some Nazi heritage has appeared in various countries around the world and has been confiscated by local governments, but there are still many Nazi heritages that have not been revealed. And no matter how firm the official forces in the world are in the openly determined to these Nazi heritages, in the underground art market, these Nazi heritages are very in short supply commodities.
According to incomplete statistics, there are at least 300 master-level paintings, sculptures and other artworks in the Nazi heritage that have not been revealed. Each artwork is a difficult thing in the world. Many wealthy people around the world hope to buy a private collection. Among these wealthy families in the Middle East who rely on oil to gather a lot of wealth are most interested in these shameful works of art. Almost 80% of the stolen goods in the underground black market were bought by them and collected in the secret rooms of their royal palaces. In addition, most of the original owners of these Nazi heritage were Jews, which is also one of the reasons why these Middle East royal families are interested.
Thinking of this, Campbell's breathing couldn't help but a little heavier. In his eyes, these twelve paintings that looked extremely ugly in the eyes of others were completely large checks, and they were waiting for him to get them without guarding. As for the sales of these stolen goods, he was not worried at all. As an art thief, he naturally had his own sales channels. Once the things were obtained, he did not need to go through a third-party black market and directly contact the buyer. This would reduce the danger of exposure. After all, even a bold and reckless person like him would not want to offend those Jews who were crazy for revenge because of these things.
At this time, Campbell, who had been in front of the twelve paintings for a long time, had attracted the attention of the museum security guards. After all, it would be strange if anyone saw a famous tourist entering the master's works exhibition room and not looking at the master's works, but staring at the twelve clumsy paintings.
Campbell also noticed that his actions were a little eye-catching, so he stopped staying in the exhibition room, quickly walked out, mixed in with other tourists, and walked out of the Brontë Museum of Art with the crowd.
After leaving the museum, Campbell did not go far, but bought a few ordinary clothes in a nearby market, and then booked a room on the top floor of the hotel where he could see the surrounding environment of the Bronte Museum. In the room, while disguising himself, he surveyed the external environment of the Bronte Museum from the hotel balcony, and soon with his skillful experience, he found several suitable retreats.
After putting on his makeup and completely disguised himself as another tourist in Florence, Campbell left the hotel and walked back to the Bronte Museum. However, after arriving at the museum this time, he did not rush to enter the museum, but walked around the museum for a few times and surveyed the actual situation of the retreat routes he found. In the end, he left the Arno River, which was the safest and fastest route.
After making plans in his mind, Campbell walked into the museum with a tour group for the second time. This time he did not make any outstanding moves. Instead, he followed the crowds of people under the guidance of the tour guide. While visiting the museum, he also secretly observed the security situation inside the museum and kept simulating the process of starting in his mind.
Night came soon, the museum closed before the sun set, some security measures in the museum were also launched, and night security guards also moved into the security room and came out to patrol from time to time according to the schedule.
Because it is a private museum, the security measures here are much more stringent than the official public museums in Florence. Not only are there the latest infrared security instruments, but there are also ten fully armed security guards. In the past, no one has ever thought about the Bronte Museum, but those who have the idea ended up falling here because of strict security measures.
The museum's security guards did not relax their vigilance because the museum had a large number of advanced security devices installed. When patrolling, they checked every suspicious place in accordance with the strictest requirements. However, no matter how well-trained and experienced these security guards were, they were just ordinary people. They might be effective in dealing with ordinary thieves, but they were of no use to abilities like Campbell.
After nightfall, Campbell had already sneaked into the museum through his stealth ability and hid under a display cabinet. By observing the interval between security guards' patrols several times, he estimated the time limit for his movements, and then began to find ways to avoid other security devices.
Infrared devices are a security device that has been popular in museums in recent years. They were initially used in some special laboratories of various parties, and were later promoted to banks and are known to the world. Because this device has not been released for a long time, the thieves have not yet found a perfect cracking method, making their anti-theft effect very good. Some enlightened museums have also accepted this security device that can save a lot of manpower.
Campbell had encountered this kind of security device several times before, and in the first few times he encountered, he was almost captured because of this kind of security device, so he also spent a lot of time studying the loopholes in this device. Through research, he now has several ways to avoid these infrared alarm devices, but each method has certain dangers. If there is a slight error, it will cause an alarm. The best and easiest way is to break the alarm line of these infrared devices and make these devices fundamentally lose their effectiveness.
When he entered the museum for the second time during the day, Campbell had already used his experience to find out where the museum's alarm device was located, but because the place he was hiding now was still some distance from where the bus was located, and he also had to pass through several infrared alarm devices, so he had to wait for the right opportunity.
As time entered midnight, Campbell waited for the opportunity to come. A four-person security patrol team came out of the security room and soon passed by where Campbell was hiding. Campbell quickly used his stealth ability to turn himself into invisible and follow behind the four.
The four people's patrol route happened to pass the infrared alarm devices that Campbell had to avoid. The four people came to the edge of the warning area. Through the intercom, the security guard in the computer room temporarily turned off the infrared device. Then the four people walked into the warning area and carefully checked every possible place to hide.
Just as the four of them carefully checked the surrounding situation, they did not notice that an invisible person was walking through the four of them, quickly passed through the warning area, turned a corner, and hid in the second hiding point he found during the day, eliminated his supernatural powers and waited for recovery.
Although Campbell's ability can help him invisible any object, including himself, this ability is not without defects. The biggest defect is that the larger the invisible object, the shorter the time it can be invisible, and each time it takes a different length of recovery.
Campbell was still invisible for a long time at this moment, but in order to deal with possible accidents, he adopted a more stable method to restore himself to his best condition before continuing to act.
Time soon passed another hour. Campbell felt that he had recovered almost, so he walked out of his second hiding place, leaned against the wall, and in the shadow, quickly sneaked towards the location of the alarm bus. Because he was wearing special sound silence shoes, even though he was very fast, his voice was very light. Even if he was just separated from the patrol security guard, the security guards on the other side could not hear anything here.
When Campbell came to the location of the bus interface, he took off the special tools at his waist, found a pair of steel pliers specially used for cutting wires, cut off the wires connecting the Master's Pavilion and the retreat route warning area, and cut off the alarm devices. After doing all this, he packed up the tools, flipped over a high wall to distinguish the value of the exhibits, and headed towards the Master's Pavilion for the Master's works.
Perhaps because he was very confident in his security equipment and measures, Bronte did not lock the door of the Master Pavilion, but just closed the door.
Campbell did not directly raise his hand to push the door open, but searched around the door with great caution and soon found a very inconspicuous dark line. The function of this dark line is that when someone pushes the door open, it will alarm an independent alarm device at the end. (To be continued.)8
Chapter completed!