Unabomber Victim's Paintings Vanish

Yale Police have an art heist on their hands. 

At least two paintings and a drawing have disappeared from the second-floor gallery at the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale University.

The artwork was done by David Gelernter and his son Daniel, 21.  David Gelernter, a Yale computer science professor, was a 1993 victim of the Unabomber. 

David Gelernter lost the use of his right hand in the bombing and said he was not as worried about being able to continue his work with computers as he was about his art.

“In the period directly after I was hurt, I had the impression that I was never going to be able to paint again,” he told the Yale Daily News in 2007. “When I discovered I could use my left hand the way I once used my right hand … I knew I could never step away from my studio.”

He has been painting all of his life and has won national recognition for his artwork.

Daniel Gelernter, a music major at Yale, has only taken up art in the past few years.

Both had submitted pieces of their artwork for an exhibit at the gallery but the younger Gelernter noticed some of the pieces were missing late last week.

The art was for sale but Daniel said there is much more than money when it comes to art. 

“My father really misses his paintings. They can never be as valuable to anyone who didn’t actually paint them. You develop a special attachment with every piece you produce,”  Gelernter told the New Haven Register.

So far police have no leads.

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