Theft in Issoire

In the night between 4 and 5 October 2026, thieves removed the bronze cover of the book L'Apocalypse from a private contemporary art centre in Issoire, located in the Puy-de-Dôme department in central France. The stolen sculpture, crafted by Salvador Dalí, weighs 150 kilograms and is adorned with precious stones, seashells, and a central figure of Christ featuring gold forks. Christian Karoutzos, the art restorer and owner of the gallery, discovered the theft on Monday morning upon finding an entrance gate forced open. The interior of the book, consisting of 150 illustrated parchment pages, remained intact because the unbound sheets were stored and exhibited separately. Karoutzos reported that the book structure suffered damage during the intrusion, describing the loss as a blow to national heritage.

They murdered France last night, they murdered French cultural heritage.

Conception and artistic scale

Conceived by Auvergne art publisher Joseph Forêt between 1958 and 1961, the 210-kilogram volume was designed as a unified work based on the biblical Book of Revelation. The project brought together 14 prominent twentieth-century creators, with seven painters producing three original artworks each, including Salvador Dalí, Bernard Buffet, Georges Mathieu, Leonor Fini, Léonard Foujita, Pierre-Yves Trémois, and Ossip Zadkine. Seven authors contributed commentary and essays, including Jean Cocteau, Jean Giono, Emil Cioran, Jean Rostand, Daniel-Rops, Jean Guitton, and Ernst Jünger. Producing the monument required collaboration across 25 artisan workshops, 2,000 hours of calligraphy covering 95,000 handwritten characters, and 550 letters illuminated in gold leaf. The 150 parchment leaves were selected from a pool of 300,000 sheepskins and stretch 150 metres when fully displayed.

Provenance and rescue

Between 1961 and 1972, L'Apocalypse travelled across the globe for nearly 150 public exhibitions before it was placed into private storage in Switzerland. The volume was later acquired by Japanese buyers who intended to dismantle the work and sell individual components at auction. Karoutzos bought the entire piece in 2003 to prevent its dispersal, spending ten years paying off the purchase. At the time of its initial production, the book was valued at two million francs (304,898 euros), or 100 million old francs, making it the most expensive book in the world. Karoutzos had scheduled an exhibition of the cover and selected parchment sheets at his Issoire centre through the autumn of 2026.

Investigation and museum security

The public prosecutor's office in Clermont-Ferrand opened an investigation, classifying the piece as a unique work of exceptional value. The gendarmerie research section in Clermont-Ferrand took charge of the inquiry to determine how the thieves removed the heavy object from the gallery, which sits on the outskirts of Issoire. Bertrand Barraud, the mayor of Issoire, called the loss inestimable and confirmed that other artworks of lesser value remained in the private museum. The burglary follows previous security incidents at French cultural sites, including the theft of the Vix torque in late July and past losses at the Jacques Chirac museum, occurring despite 33 museum security measures announced by the government.