London artist gets into police car chase after having 250 artworks stolen in France. She went on a mission to get all of them back
An artist had to become a detective overnight after her artworks were stolen.
Sophie (@sophieteaart), an artist from London, told social media that she was robbed of 250 artworks in Marseille, France. After the loss, the artist went on a detective mission to recover her stolen works.
“I’m in Marseille, and I just had 250 pieces of artwork stolen from our car along with five cameras, two laptops, three suitcases, and not forgetting my dad’s iPad, which he’s very upset about,” Sophie alleged on TikTok. She said it happened at 6:00 p.m. on September 7. Despite the harrowing incident, Sophie decided to track the thieves.
“I’m tracking you down,” she told TikTok. Sophie took her iPhone and saw the iPad’s location moving quickly down the street. She saw police and called them, asking to hop in the back of their car. Sophie explained the situation to the cops, and they agreed to let her ride in their car.
She told them which direction the iPad was moving. The theft essentially turned into a police car chase. However, her items were still missing the next morning.
“This is not over yet,” she said. Although she was left behind in Marseille, she wanted to continue her search for her 250 artworks. Sophie said they were investment-grade artworks, and she went bin diving for them in hopes of recovering her paintings. While searching, someone from the bins told her about a local cafe that sold stolen goods at 5:00 p.m., and Sophie decided to go undercover.
“I’m going undercover. I’m taking cash, and I’m buying back my memory cards and my cameras back,” she disclosed. On top of that, Sophie also filed a police report and printed out flyers to notify the public about her stolen artworks.
Did she recover her missing gadgets and artworks?
A day after the robbery, Sophie decided to paint for a local charity shop in Marseille. She redonated the item—a telephone she painted on—and bought it for the person who wanted to buy the artwork. The person who kept the phone she painted on said she has also been looking in bins for Sophie’s artworks but found nothing.
Another woman from Washington, DC, didn’t recommend traveling to Egypt after a hostile encounter with her Uber driver. Despite the robbery and subsequent police chase, Sophie still ended her trip on a positive note. “You guys have made Marseille a happy memory for me,” she told the ladies at the charity shop.
Sophie eventually returned to London empty-handed. In a follow-up video, she confirmed she didn’t find her acrylic paintings. “I did feel weird about seeing my pink clothes all over the street. I won’t lie, it’s a bit embarrassing,” she recalled. She found her pink coat on the street but had to leave it behind because it was allegedly covered in pee. Her memory cards, cameras, laptops, suitcases, and her dad’s iPad were not found.
Although her artworks were lost, Sophie decided to start a new collection of acrylic postcards. Her new collection, titled ‘Postcards from Provence,’ is now available on her website but is nearly sold out.
Sophie isn’t the only one who went on a thrilling chase in France. One cyclist and one runner agreed to race from France, over the mountains, all the way to Italy. In this case, the only thing that was stolen was the other racer’s victory.
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