A 75-year-old man tried in vain to abscond with a bronze head from Florence's Novecento Museum, police said Tuesday.
Security cameras caught the culprit red-handed as he unscrewed the head - Renato Mazzacurati's 1941 Portrait of Walter Conadin - from its pedestal and placed it in his bag.
He reportedly explained he felt the head "would be better off at home with me".
The sculpture is worth 10-20,000 euros, museum sources said.
The would-be robber is no stranger to police.
He was reported last year for damaging a door in a courthouse in the town of Grosseto, and also for shooting at someone's window.
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