SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A thief, apparently enamored with a saucy Vargas pin-up of a female nude that appeared in Playboy Magazine, stole the painting in broad daylight, officials said on Monday.



The thief walked into a gallery in the town of Larkspur, north of San Francisco, on Sunday afternoon and set his eyes on a January 1960 painting by pin-up artist Alberto Vargas. He grabbed the watercolor from an easel and then escaped even though the gallery owner chased him down the street.


Larkspur police said the painting had a value of $125,000 but was selling for $75,000 because of depressed prices in the art market.


Beloved by generations of men, Vargas paintings can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, said Theron Kabrich, owner of the San Francisco Art Exchange, which specializes in the artist.


"It's Americana, it's emblematic, iconic. The notoriety of the work has a big draw for a lot of people," he said.


The theft comes as Playboy Magazine is celebrating its 50th anniversary in its January issue. The magazine ran about 150 Vargas's paintings over 18 years starting in 1960

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