The art world has long been the subject for thieves and robbers due to the extremely high levels of profit on offer for selling stolen artwork. There is also a certain romance to stealing art that gives the thieves notoriety if they are successful, or even if they aren’t and are caught.

The robbery of artwork also lends itself to a painting’s back-story, becoming part of the legend, and every famous painting as a rich history behind it. It’s no wonder then that many thieves are drawn the world of art, and Bernard Jean Ternus is one such man.

Bernard Jean Ternus is currently in court pleading guilty to attempting to sell four works of art that were stolen from a museum in France last year. The paintings were stolen in a brazen act of robbery from armed thieves.

The paintings were being touted by Bernard Jean Ternus for a staggering $4.7 million, but sadly for Bernard Jean Ternus he was trying to sell them to FBI agents and French police.

Patricia Seitz, the District Judge asked Ternus why he was pleading guilty, Ternus responded:

Because I am guilty.

The four paintings had been stolen from the Musee des Beaux-Arts, in Nice, in 2007. One of the paintings was a Monet, the ‘Cliffs Near Dieppe’.