The Hollow Needle
by Maurice Leblanc
One of Leblanc’s popular series of novels about an art thief called Arsène Lupin, who is skillful, non-violent, dextrous and elegant
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“Arsène Lupin has been wildly influential and, in fact, he and the plot of The Hollow Needle inspired a real theft of art. In 1934, one of the panels from Jan van Eyck’s famous Ghent altarpiece was stolen in the night. The thieves’ method and the ensuing ransom demands were all directly modelled on The Hollow Needle. It turned out that the mastermind behind the theft, a Belgian stockbroker called Arsène Goedertier,was completely obsessed with Arsène Lupin. He thought the fact that they shared the same name was a great symbol of their connection. And he literally drew a real-life crime out of the plot of a work of fiction. I write about it in my book Stealing the Mystic Lamb. It’s an extraordinary story and, as an aside, one that really deserves to be made into a film.” Read more...
Noah Charney, Novelist
