An unidentified patron of Mars Pub and Arcade snuck out of the venue Friday night with a pair of unusual — and illegal — souvenirs: two stolen paintings.
Mars co-owner Allison Basker said the staff noticed the paintings were gone at about midnight. She said the paintings were priced at $25 each.
One of the paintings stolen off the walls belonged to 22-year-old artist Jessica Cook.
“My initial reaction was, of course, anger but also confusion,” Cook said. “Who steals independent art?”
Basker said the artwork was taken sometime during Friday’s five-band show that lasted until after midnight.
Earlier in the evening, she said, someone tried to take a painting, but staff and patrons thwarted the would-be thief.
Although an attendant was present in the gallery, she said, a bartender reported that someone tried to walk out with a painting, and a bystander stopped him.
Sometime later, the two pieces went missing.
“It’s a small town — a small scene,” she said. “We thought we’d figure it out pretty quickly.”
The missing paintings hung with about eight other canvases on the black walls of the foyer. The room has doubled as an art gallery and conduit between the bar and arcade since Mars reopened last month.
Basker said she’s ruled out the possibility of the thief walking out the front door. She said whoever snuck out with the hot items must have used a back door — possibly the door to the right of the stage where bands were loading and unloading gear — and must have been familiar with the building.
“We’re pretty sure the person who did it hangs out here a lot,” she said.
Local artist Kat Van Riet’s painting, titled “Videre Verum,” was also taken.
Riet posted a notice about the stolen painting on Reddit, asking for help in tracking it down.
Cook said she learned her painting had been stolen when she read an alert post Sunday morning about the theft on Mars’ Facebook page.
“My first question was, ‘Which one was it?’” she said. “I feel like one of my brain children was taken, and I wanted to know which one it was.”
Cook said she immediately emailed Mars and received a response that afternoon, confirming her piece, “Shecreature VI,” was indeed one of the stolen paintings. She said she felt bewildered and disappointed about the theft.
Cook’s stolen painting depicted the face of a girl with an open mouth and red lips on an orange background. She said she redrew the design from a composition notebook full of sketches and class notes she created while a student at UF.
“I guess it’s a bad kind of compliment,” Cook said. “Apparently, someone likes it.”
