Valuable 200-pound book with cover by Salvador Dalí stolen from French museum

A valuable book weighing 210 kilograms with a cover designed by Salvador Dalí was stolen from a museum in Issoire, France, late last night, according to local media. The book, titled The Book of Revelation, is considered one of the most expensive and heavy works in the world. It was created through the collaboration of fourteen artists and writers during the years 1958 to 1961. The theft took place at the Contemporary Art Center of Issoire, a gallery run by collector Christian Karoutzos, located just outside the town of around 15,000 residents in the Auvernia region. The Fiscalía de Clermont Ferrand has opened an investigation into the crime, describing the work as "an exceptional and unique piece of great value." The book, which is valued in millions of euros, features a cover made of bronze weighing 150 kilograms, adorned with gold, needles, and shells. This alone makes it an extraordinary artifact. Inside, there are 200 parchment pages with handwritten text, including illustrations by Dalí, Léonard Foujita, and other notable artists of the 20th century. Joseph Foret, a modest cheese seller from the Auvernia region who became an art publisher, conceived the project. He aimed to create "the most expensive book in the world," for which he enlisted seven renowned painters and seven prominent writers. Among the artists were Salvador Dalí, Léonard Foujita, Bernard Buffet, Georges Mathieu, and Ossip Zadkine, while the literary contributors included Jean Cocteau, Jean Giono, and Emil Cioran. During the presentation of the work, Karoutzos explained that Foret had initially wanted to include Pablo Picasso, but the Spanish artist forced him to choose between himself and Dalí. Ultimately, Foret chose Dalí, the surrealist painter whose contribution to the cover became central to the book’s identity. The creation process spanned three years, with each artist working manually on the pages. Caligrapher Micheline Nicolas placed the letters onto the 200 parchments, while the internal structure contained 150 parchment pages with gold lettering. The book was first exhibited in 1961 at the Musée de l'Art Moderne in Paris and traveled extensively before being sold by its creator, Foret, in 1970 due to financial difficulties. Its trail disappeared into Japan until Karoutzos recovered it in 2003 with the intention of making it a national treasure. He promoted it as "the heaviest and most expensive book in the world." The recent theft at the Contemporary Art Center of Issoire is part of a broader trend of security breaches affecting French museums and artistic institutions in recent months. Similar incidents have targeted the Louvre, where royal jewels displayed until October 2025 remain missing. Karoutzos expressed his outrage over the theft, calling it an attack on France's heritage. During a radio interview, he stated, "They assassinated France tonight, they assassinated French heritage." The authorities have yet to release further details about how the thieves managed to remove such a massive object from the premises. The investigation continues, with no arrests announced so far.