A sticky-fingered art thief strolled through the Upper East Side’s famed Carlyle hotel yesterday and walked off with a painting worth $350,000, police sources said.
A worker told authorities that the Fernand Léger ink-on-linen work disappeared between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. from the hotel’s Helly Nahmad Gallery.
Video surveillance shows a man walking into the Madison Avenue hotel, then coming out a short time later with a bag that wasn’t seen on the first video clip.
Sources said the crook probably stuffed the 10-inch-by-8-inch painting into a bag. Authorities said the thief got into a car and drove off.
The 1917 work of art, “Composition aux element mecaniques,” was painted by Léger, a 20th-century French artist important in the Cubist movement.
There have been no arrests.
The Carlyle is a favored crash pad of aristocrats and stars. France’s glamorous first lady, Carla Bruni, stayed there last year.
The hotel’s Café Carlyle was also the longtime home of legendary jazz pianist Bobby Short.
Guests walked past white-gloved elevator operators and glanced at the yellow crime-scene tape that clashed with the hotel’s ornate decor.
The hotel is known for its discretion, which explained why employees talked about the theft in hushed tones.
“Everybody in the art world already knows that painting’s gone,” one employee said. “This is horrible.”
A detective dusted the area for fingerprints.
“Just because they touch something doesn’t mean they leave a print,” he said. “With DNA, maybe we’ll get lucky.”