THives stole priceless jewels from the Louvre this weekend in a brazen heist that involved an electric ladder, a glass cutter and high-powered scooters. They were in and out of the famous museum in 8 minutes. But in 2009, a 20-year-old US citizen pulled off a heist near London that rivaled the daring escapade at the Louvre. However, his goal was not jewelry. These were birds.
The Natural History Museum at Tring, about 40 miles northwest of London, houses marvels of zoology, including stuffed extinct animals, rare books once viewed by Victorian explorers and bizarre fleas dressed in traditional clothing that were bought in Mexico around 1905. But Edwin Rist was interested in the museum's birds.
Rist studied flute at London's Royal Academy of Music and is also an avid fly-fishing lure maker. At the age of 15, he wrote a famous book about this hobby. Like other enthusiasts, he learned that rare bird feathers collected during the Victorian era were highly prized and could fetch very high prices. In 2009, Rist visited the museum at Tring, posing as a photographer taking photographs of the site's rare bird specimens on assignment. He photographed hundreds of preserved bird skins, as well as the museum's halls and doors. Later that year, he carried out a plan that had been months in the making: to steal some of the museum's more exotic specimens to sell their feathers—or turn them into elaborate fly-fishing lures that could command even higher prices.
In June of that year, Rist gave a concert in London and then took the train to Tring. He burst into the Natural History Museum with a large suitcase, gloves and a glass cutter. Rist absconded with 299 bird specimens, mostly males of tropical species including quetzals, cotingas and birds of paradise, with colorful feathers used to attract mates. Some skins were collected Alfred Russell Wallacecontemporary of Charles Darwin, who developed the theory of evolution by natural selection independently of the biologist who later became known as the father of the theory.
Rist initially got away with the crime. It was only a month after the robbery, when he was selling feathers on eBay to buy a golden flute, that investigators caught the young American. The museum was able to recover 174 specimens intact, although Rist removed identification labels from most, negating their scientific value.
Fined more than £125,000 (the amount he earned from selling feathers), given a 12-month suspended prison sentence and placed on supervised release for 12 months in 2011, Rist later graduated from the Royal Academy. He now lives in Germany, changed his name to Edwin Reinhard and continues to play the flute in orchestras there. His story inspired Feather Thief2018 true crime book written by Kirk Johnson.
You can catch a glimpse of Rist/Reinhardt on his YouTube channel. HeavyMetalFlute.
Main image: Charles J. Sharp/Wikimedia
