A 16 hour theft class is much better than going to jail, don’t you think? A man who could have taken a stop theft class and instead chose to steal a drawing by famed Spanish artist Salvador Dali will have some time to think about while he spends time in the pokey!

Just how easy is it to steal a valuable piece of art. This thief did not wear gloves, nor did he don a ski mask. He staged no elaborate diversion. He did not even hide under the cover of night.

The man who stole a drawing by the Surrealist painter Salvador Dalí wore only the most basic of disguises: that of an everyday gallery visitor. And he brought only the most basic of tools for his heist: a black shopping bag. This according to the NYTimes.

When he left the new Venus Over Manhattan gallery on Madison Avenue and escaped into a sunny afternoon, no one — not the security guard standing watch in the gallery, not the guard in the building’s lobby — realized that a thief was making his getaway.

This was not just some child’s drawing at the mall, this was “Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio,” valued at $150,000.

The watercolor-and-gouache drawing was hung in a group of 14 framed works behind a partition in Venus Over Manhattan’s dark, cavelike third-floor space, where an 18th-century painting by the British artist Henry Fuseli coexists with a 1976 Andy Warhol canvas.

The thief has yet to be caught, however, he was caught quite clearly on a store surveillance video.

Art theft is much more common in private galleries than museums because of security, or lack thereof.

I would hope when caught this thief is forced to take a series of stop theft classes and seek counseling for his aberrant behavior.