Rich Lowry

Is robbing the Louvre a good idea?

Left-wing influencer Hasan Piker and New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino did a much-discussed video interview with The New York Times on the ethics of theft, and came out four-square in favor of stealing things, including artwork from the Louvre.

They consider larceny an appropriate response to the inherent corruption and injustice of the American capitalist system. The merits of this position aside, it’s not clear why it justifies stealing paintings or sculptures from a museum owned and operated by the government of France.

When asked about the propriety of hitting up the Louvre, Tolentino heartily endorsed it, and Piker explained: “Yeah, I think it’s cool. We gotta get back to cool crimes like that. Bank robberies. Stealing priceless artifacts, things of that nature.”

Oh, yes, who wouldn’t love to see someone make off with the Venus de Milo and chop it up into pieces and sell them on the black market?

What Piker and Tolentino are doing, at bottom, is romanticizing violence for its own sake, wrapping nihilism in the rhetoric of social justice. It is radical chic for 21st century opinion-makers, and one can only rue that Tom Wolfe isn’t still with us to lampoon it.

The jewel heist at the Louvre last year was carried out by common thieves, while the crown jewels they took have yet to be returned. This theft didn’t strike a blow against the French monarchy, because there is no such thing, but it did deny ordinary people — roughly 10 million visit the museum every year — the opportunity to see things of beauty and historical significance.

In other words, the heist was victory over the public interest, and our social-justice warriors pronounce themselves delighted.

Those groups in the U.S. that have acted on an impulse for revolutionary violence rather than simply talk about it on podcasts — including by robbing banks — created pointless suffering and destruction.

If a violent social revolution were truly to break out, it’d presumably target the affluent Piker and Tolentino, whose homes, cars, and other possessions would be tempting to anyone stealing things in the name of social progress.

At that point, one assumes, they’d find crime less fun, but it’s perfectly acceptable as long as it’s someone else getting robbed.