Picasso was suspected of stealing the 'Mona Lisa'
newyorker.com
newyorker.com
I would have expected that behavior to make them seem guilty enough to warrant holding them until their stories are thoroughly examined.
Or to put it another way, it was a different, simpler time.
After learning of this, I now value Pablo Picasso (the person) somewhat differently. He was ~26 in 1907. Not a kid.
This probably explains why e.g. I had never heard of this before: https://jacobin.com/2023/06/pablo-picasso-brooklyn-museum-ga...
Of course, mere copying is vastly different from copying plus theft and attempted burying/hiding of the original [inspiration].
Planning to do something bad and not following through is not the same thing as doing the bad thing.
(What mixture of it was conscience, and what mixture was fear of getting caught?)
In the end, we'll never know why they didn't dump the suitcase in the river.
> > (What mixture of it was conscience, and what mixture was fear of getting caught?)
As posited above: because of conscience?
Because of fear of getting caught dropping a suitcase?
And, of course, I suggest one go to more primary sources. The only one we really have is Fernande Olivier, who said (translation):
> After a hastily swallowed dinner and a long evening’s wait, they set out on foot around midnight with the suitcase; at two in the morning they were back, worn out and still carrying the suitcase with the statues inside.
> They had wandered the streets never finding the right moment, never daring to get rid of the suitcase. They thought they were being followed and conjured up in imagination a thou sand possibilities. . . . Although I shared their fears, I had been watching them rather closely that night. I am sure that perhaps involuntarily they had been play-acting a little: to such a point that, while waiting for “the moment of the crime,” although neither of them knew how, they had pretended to play cards—doubtless in imitation of certain bandits they had read about. In the end Apollinaire spent the night at Picasso’s and went the next morn ing to Paris-Journal, where he turned in the undesirable statues under a pledge of secrecy.
I read in all of these sources a lot of ambiguity about why they didn't. You find certainty, perhaps-- I don't.
I don’t think that’s the case, at least for me.
It is more that they even thought this is an okay thing to do makes them moraly suspect in my eyes. Doesn’t matter if they went through with it or not. Doesn’t matter why they haven’t gone through with it either.
They should have told the person offering to steal a statue that he shouldn’t. And when he shows up with a statue they should have told him that he should bring it back or they are calling the police. And when he brought the second statue they should have called the police instead of paying for it. And then every single day the statue was on his mantle piece he should have returned it safely. Same as when things got too hot for them. Instead they decided to destroy them.
These are all facts which put them in rather bad light. By that point they were already miles deep into bad decisions. And, none of them even asked “what if we just leave this suitcase with a sign which says ‘to the police’?” But somehow i should care weather they didn’t go through with destroying the statues out of cowardice or consciousness? Even if it is consciousness it is too little too late for me.
Maybe you don't seriously consider doing really bad things, and even take steps playing with the idea of doing them. I definitely have, especially when I was younger.
> They should have told the person offering to steal a statue that he shouldn’t. And when he shows up with a statue they should have told him that he should bring it back or they are calling the police. And when he brought the second statue they should have called the police instead of paying for it. And then every single day the statue was on his mantle piece he should have returned it safely.
Sure, stealing things is bad.
> And, none of them even asked “what if we just leave this suitcase with a sign which says ‘to the police’?”
Actually, they handed them to the police through a newspaper. That's what they actually did! So clearly they asked it at some point ;)
There was a lot more there just "considering". If they just had a night chatting about the state of museum security that would have been "consider doing really bad things" and "take steps playing with the idea of doing them".
He wrote a poem about the experience of being jailed:
https://allpoetry.com/poem/14329550---La-Sant--by-Guillaume-...
I think “La Santé” was the name of the prison. The English translation of the title loses this double meaning.
La Fontaine, I think, was the title of Marcel Duchamp's urinal installation; I suspect it might be a common euphemism?
Today's standards are indeed different: if rich or famous enough, you can commit dozens of felonies, receive no prison time or other actual punishment, and be sworn in as president!
The rulers of yesteryear are surely grateful that, in time, even the worst sins get washed away.
"Politicians used to be honorable" must be as commonly said across generations as "kids these days are just so disrespectful".