Armed with nothing but a dolly, three guys walked into Toronto General Hospital earlier this month and brazenly stole a baby grand Boston Steinway piano worth $27,000. Proving once and for all that Torontonians are too polite for our own good, the thieves told hospital staff that they were taking the piano for tuning, even though tuners typically come to the piano, not the other way around. Head of security Todd Milne said that he was “shocked” that volunteers had not noticed the piano’s absence for four days.

Toronto has seen its fair share of high-profile heists. In 2006, a pair of bejewelled gold slippers were stolen from the Bata Shoe Museum, insured for a cool $160,000 but considered priceless. The slippers were later recovered after staff at a photo shop recognized the shoes in photos the thieves had brought in for developing. In 2011, two art thefts robbed galeries in Mount Pleasant and Yorkville of $473,000 worth of paintings, including five from the Group of Seven. This summer alone, we’ve seen a carpet store scammed out of $14,000 worth of rare rugs and a $26,000 bottle of scotch snatched from a Queen’s Quay LCBO by a man in Burberry plaid.

For more on daring art heists, check out Toronto Standard‘s interview with Joshua Knelman, author of Hot Art: Chasing Thieves and Detectives Through the Secret World of Stolen Art. Fun fact: “Toronto is a great place to steal art, to sell stolen art, and to hide stolen art.“

[via Globe & Mail]

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Vidal Wu is an intern at Toronto Standard. You can follow him on Twitter at @vidalwuu.

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