The “Thomas Crown Affair” it wasn’t.
A bumbling career criminal wandered into a Chelsea art gallery and brazenly yanked an $85,000 painting off the wall – but was caught less than a day later after he tried to sell it to someone who called police, authorities said.
Robert Fahey, 41, of Woodside, Queens, was busted Sunday near his home carrying the artwork, “Blue Nude #10,” by American painter Thomas Wesselmann, in a white canvas bag, sources said.
Fahey had strolled into the DJT Fine Art Gallery on Tenth Avenue and West 24th Street Saturday just before closing and began chatting with the manager, authorities said.
Fahey – who has a lengthy rap sheet – had been in the gallery several times before the heist and staff knew him, the sources added.
When the manager stepped away, Fahey allegedly pulled the painting off the wall and ran.
Not long afterward, police received an anonymous phone tip from someone who said Fahey had tried to sell the painting, and cops were quickly able to track him down.
He was charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property and held on $10,000 bail, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Fahey is due back in court tomorrow.
The low-rent caper is a far cry from the 1999 film “The Thomas Crown Affair,” in which Pierce Brosnan plays a billionaire who steals a Monet painting for kicks.
Red-faced gallery officials were thrilled the artwork was found.
“The gallery is pleased that the painting was quickly recovered and returned completely unharmed,” said gallery president Vladimir Gonda.
“We worked with the police, who did an outstanding job. Nothing like this has ever happened at our gallery before, and we are thankful that this case was solved rapidly and that the painting was recovered.”
The painting remains with the DA’s office for now, Gonda said.
Wesselmann, whose work has been featured at major museums including the Whitney and MoMA, was born in Cincinnati in 1931 and attended Cooper Union. “Blue Nude” was completed in 2000 and was inspired by Matisse’s Blue Nude series. The artist died in 2004.