In this article about the theft of a Da Vinci painting, the following quote from art critic Brian Sewell reminded me of the hilarity of Stephen Fry:

"And nobody who knows anything about Leonardo is in ignorance of this picture. It is widely known."

I was honestly glad for the second sentence. My parser threw a stack exception on the first one.

The circumstances do, perhaps explain why Europe seems so civilized to me, thieves not withstanding. Where else in the world would anything valued at over $45 Million USD have no real security what so ever?