Books should not be judged by their covers — unless the cover is a 330-pound, jewel-encrusted sculpture created by the master surrealist Salvador Dalí. In that case, it may also appeal to art thieves, as a recent heist in France revealed.
The “Book of Revelation,” or “Livre de l’Apocalypse,” was a literary art project involving 14 prominent modern artists and writers, including Jean Cocteau. First shown in 1961 at the Museum of Modern Art of Paris, it was considered the world’s expensive book at the time.
Of late, the cover has been on permanent display at a private museum in Issoire, in central France. At least until last week, when three thieves broke in and took off with the unwieldy work, leaving behind broken glass and shadowy images captured by security cameras.
The theft of the Dalí comes amid a rash of art heists in France, including at the Louvre in Paris last year and at a museum in the country’s south dedicated to the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir last month. That has raised alarm about the security of other valuable works.
“It is a monumental loss,” said Nathanaël Molay, who has spent 20 years working with the book’s owner, Christian Karoutzos, an artist, restorer, collector and owner of the C Karoutzos Contemporary Art Center, the private museum in Issoire.
The two men, who recently completed a 385-page text analyzing the artwork, were on the phone when Mr. Karoutzos discovered the theft, Mr. Molay said. The owner, he said, is “devastated” and asked him to respond to queries in his stead.
“It’s like losing someone you love,” he said.
The precise monetary value of the stolen book cover is unclear. Mr. Molay estimated that it is worth at least several million dollars, based on its technical and artistic uniqueness and the prices fetched by smaller, less distinctive works by Dalí.
“The work is exceptional,” Mr. Molay said.
The stolen cover is made of bronze and cast using a “lost wax” technique that makes it impossible to recreate.
The police have been to the museum, dusting it for fingerprints and analyzing both the site and security camera footage. Now they are looking for clues, including who may have visited the museum website before the heist, Mr. Molay said. He said that he had spoken with investigators on Tuesday, more than a week after the theft, but that there was still “little known” about the crime.
A French art publisher, Joseph Forêt, came up with the idea for the “Book of Revelation” collaboration in 1958 and recruited the artists and writers involved. After, its completion in 1961, it was displayed at museums around the world, but eventually faded from view.
Mr. Karoutzos acquired the work in 2003 and has been studying it ever since. Most of the book, made up of 150 parchment pages with art and writing, was not on display — the museum is too small for such an extensive exhibition, Mr. Molay said — and remains safe. But in the owner’s estimation, the cover was unlike any other art object in existence, and an important gateway to the greater project.
In the text analyzing the “Book of the Apocalypse,” which the museum plans to publish as a book, Mr. Karoutzos says it can be compared to a cathedral because it combines the skills of writers, artists, crafts people, calligraphers and other specialists.
“If one were to single out the most spectacular element of this monumental work,” he writes, “the cover designed by Salvador Dalí would naturally stand out.”
The cover stands in contrast to many other works by Dalí because it is one of a kind.
Dalí is considered one of the most widely reproduced and faked artists, a master who damaged his reputation and contributed to confusion in the market for his works by signing blank sheets of paper en masse. In 1974, the French customs police halted a truck loaded with 40,000 blank pieces of paper signed by Dalí; the year before, a French notary affirmed that Dalí had signed 4,000 sheets of paper at a hotel in Paris in preparation for future sales.
The cover of the “Book of Revelation” is impossible to reproduce because its original wax model melted away during the casting process. It would also be difficult for thieves to sell in its original form, which raises concerns that the bronze cover with precious stones, pearls, seashells, needles, knives, forks and more may be destroyed, Mr. Molay said.
This is not the first Dalí theft to generate headlines in recent decades.
In 2012, a New York gallery visitor casually left an exhibition with a drawing by the artist valued at about $150,000. A Dalí painting donated to Rikers Island in 1965 because the artist was unable to attend a painting session with inmates as he had promised, was displayed at the jail until it was stolen by guards during a fire drill in 2003.
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