Heavy bronze cover of Dalí-linked "Apocalypse" book stolen from French museum
A bronze cover weighing about 150 kilograms has been stolen from a museum in Isère, France. It belongs to the "Apocalypse" book created in 1960 with the involvement of Salvador Dalí, and police cannot yet explain how the thieves carried it off unnoticed.
The bronze cover of the "Apocalypse" book, a work to which Spanish artist Salvador Dalí contributed, has been stolen from a museum in the French town of Isère, according to the outlet Meduza. Police still cannot explain how the thieves managed to carry off such a heavy object unseen: the cover weighs about 150 kilograms, while the whole book weighs 210 kilograms.
About the book
The book was created in 1960 on the basis of the Book of Revelation. Fourteen artists and writers worked on it, among them Dalí, Jean Cocteau and Jean Giono. It consists of 150 large sheets of sheepskin, the text is handwritten, and 550 letters are engraved in gold. The bronze cover is decorated with gold and precious stones.
When it was made, it was the heaviest and most expensive book in the world, valued at two million francs. Between 1961 and 1972 it was shown at almost 150 exhibitions around the world, and was later kept in Switzerland. In 2003, French collector Christian Carrousse bought it from its Japanese owners, who had wanted to sell it in parts. Since then it has been on display in Isère.
A series of French museum thefts
Several high-profile museum robberies have taken place in France over the past year. Last October, thieves took jewels worth 88 million euros from the imperial collection at the Louvre; it later emerged that the items were uninsured. In July 2026, criminals stole about 20 items from the Lalique Museum in Wingen-sur-Moder, with losses estimated at four million euros. Although the museum's alarm was on, gendarmes learned of the robbery from a cleaner. On 8 September, four paintings worth about nine million euros were taken from the Auguste Renoir museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France.
