This was posted by Firesong in alt.callahans.

There once was a bunch of rather ineffective art thieves, headed by one Enrico W ielf. They had the thief part down pat, they could break into _anywhere_. The tr ouble was, Enrico had very poor taste in art. They would invariably wind up with the most terrible pieces of worthless trash in the collection. It got so the po lice could spot one of their crimes by the uselessness of the stolen items.

One day however, their tastes changed. Suddenly the art world was suffering loss es like never before, losses of fine and expensive art. The word on the street w as that the thieves had picked up a new member, one Bertrand Adeus, who was now choosing the targets. His knowledge was encyclopaedic and they were making a for tune.

In fact, in the words of one of the Police department’s snitches. “The Wielf gan g, and Adeus, knows art.”