Metro

Dali painting snatched off wall at E. Side gallery

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A slick art thief snatched a Salvador Dali painting right off the wall of an Upper East Side gallery, dropped it in a shopping bag and calmly strolled unnoticed out the front door, law-enforcement sources said.

Famed art dealer and radio baron Adam Lindemann told cops the crook snatched “Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio” from his new Venus Over Manhattan gallery on Madison Avenue at around 4 p.m. Wednesday, the sources said.

“During regular business hours, with a security guard,” Lindemann told The Post today.

The small watercolor-and-ink painting — a Dali original completed in 1949 — is worth $150,000, insurance adjusters told cops.

“We’re cooperating fully with the police and have no further comment,” added Lindemann, a polo-playing socialite who founded a chain of 20 Spanish-language radio stations.

Surveillance video shows the crook walking into the darkened, third-floor gallery carrying a heavyweight paper shopping bag, sources said.

The thief told a security guard who was keeping an eye on him, “I want to take a picture of this painting,” meaning the Dali, according to a source.

The guard told him he could take a photo but could not use a flash.

But, distracted by another visitor, the rent-a-cop left.

When he returned, it was too late.

The surveillance video footage shows the thief slipping out of the gallery with the purloined painting’s frame protruding from his bag.

The guard notified Lindemann, who reported the theft to the NYPD today morning.

He didn’t recognize the thief from the video.

Sources described the crook as a white male, about 5-foot-6, 160 pounds and 35 to 42 years old. He wore dark jeans and shoes and a black-and-white checkered dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

Lindemann is an art lover who opened the gallery on May 9 with the kinky exhibition “À Rebours,” which included a few dozen works from the 19th century to the present.

He is married to the art dealer Amalia Dayan, granddaughter of former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan.

In 2006, Lindemann published a collection of interviews with art-world bigs in the 2006 book “Collecting Contemporary.”

Art lovers were saddened they couldn’t see the Dali work today.

“We went inside to see the show, and we were wondering where the Salvador Dali painting was,” said Jacquie Tellalian, 58.

“It’s a small painting, but how did he just put in his bag and walk out like that? I hope somebody finds it.”

Additional reporting by Lorena Mongelli