A brazen thief broke into Cynthia Driscoll Interiors last week, stealing just one item – an Italian mid-century floor lamp valued at more than $12,000, said proprietor Cynthia Driscoll.
Driscoll said a store employee left the shop at 70 Charles St. at around 4 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 29, and returned the next day at approximately 11 a.m. to find the Arredoluce Triennale lamp missing.
“He or she had two sets of window locks to get through and had to climb through a very visible window at the Meeting House into a [well-lit] shop,” Driscoll said of the culprit.
The sole stolen item, designed by Angelo Lelli in 1953, was part of Driscoll’s personal collection and on display for only weeks as part of an in-store exhibit of mid-century modern furnishings.
“The general consensus is that this was stolen for someone’s personal use and not for quick money,” Driscoll said. “There were too many other items to steal.”
On Sunday, Oct. 28, , the night before the theft, Driscoll said a neighbor also saw someone tampering with the shop’s first-floor window.
And as police pore over fingerprints left at the scene and footage from nearby surveillance cameras, Driscoll already has a suspect in mind. She believes a young woman who came in to view the item several times put a male accomplice up to the crime.
“I just want the lamp back,” Driscoll said. “They can drop it off in the vestibule outside my office and walk away.”
Driscoll asks anyone with information on the crime to contact the police or call the shop at 617-367-6770.