'Portrait of a Heist:' A look back at 1978 Christmas Eve burglary at SF's de Young Museum

"Entrenched in the terror of the Zodiac and Zebra killings, San Franciscans endured the tragedy of the Jonestown Massacre and the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk. Patty Hearst made headlines, someone tried to shoot President Gerald Ford at the St. Francis Hotel, all while Mayor Dianne Feinstein tried to keep the city together. It would be easy, then, for one not to remember that the largest art heist in San Francisco's history also happened in the '70s."

"It happened on Christmas Eve, 1978, to be exact. "Watch ABC7's Original documentary, 'Portrait of a Heist' in the media player above or wherever you stream ABC7. "I can't believe I hadn't heard of it," said Nicole Meldahl, the Executive Director of a community history nonprofit called Western Neighborhoods Project. She produced a podcast on this exact case in 2024."

"Sometime between when the museum closed on Christmas Eve, at around 5 p.m., and when they opened at 9:15 the next morning, someone swooped in and stole four paintings from Gallery 12. The biggest, in terms of size and value, was 'Portrait of a Rabbi,' attributed to Rembrandt at the time and worth about $1 million. The security on duty was none the wiser."

"Police believe the thieves made their way to the roof of the museum by way of the scaffolding that was present at the time. "We created vulnerabilities with the construction, to be sure," said Tom Seligman, former director of the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University. Seligman was a deputy director with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco at the time of the theft."

The largest art heist in San Francisco history occurred on Christmas Eve 1978 at the de Young Museum. Thieves stole four paintings from Gallery 12 between museum closing at about 5 p.m. and reopening at 9:15 a.m., including a Rembrandt-attributed Portrait of a Rabbi valued at about $1 million. Museum security on duty did not notice the theft. Investigators believe the thieves accessed the roof via scaffolding that was present for construction, creating vulnerabilities that officials later acknowledged. Local historians and nonprofit directors later revisited the case and produced related media coverage and a podcast.

Read at ABC7 San Francisco