Taco Bell's Art Heist and the Modern Art Market

What do you think of when you hear the phrase “art heist?” Is it Oceans 11 style planning with an attempt to steal the Mona Lisa? Or is it the most recent heist at the Louvre? Or is it at a Taco Bell in Westlake, Ohio? Well, in 2015 someone stole a print, believed at the time to be worth around $800,  that had stood at a Taco Bell for almost 20 years. This case reveals how media attention and storytelling, can artificially inflate value, often overshadowing artistic merit.  

Ultimately, the police claim the crime was not calculated but rather an “impulsive taco-and-beer-fueled crime of passion”(Cascone, 2015). However, this does not seem to be the case since authorities searched “every dorm room and rumpus room in a ten mile radius” suggesting that authorities treated the theft as more than a minor act (Cascone, 2015). Eventually authorities gave up on the case and nothing was heard about the location of the art piece. 

Nearly a decade later, in 2024, listings of these pieces appeared on Ebay for prices of up to $30,000 for the set; seemingly driven by constant discussion in the Living Mas reddit page. The demand for the pieces skyrocketed; one employee stated “Multiple users who claimed to manage Taco Bell stores said they took the art during renovations and were willing to pawn the pieces off, while others lamented that shift leads and higher-ups ran off with them, beating their subordinates to it” (Bindman, 2024). This illustrates how even Taco Bell art pieces with minimal intrinsic value can become hyperinflated through widely circulated narratives of theft and resale, in which attention itself functions as the driving force for its value.

However, the thieves are also not the only ones benefiting from the heists. According to company reports, Taco Bell experienced an increase of over $600,000 in profits the day following the theft, although multiple factors likely contributed to this rise. Rather than serving as the central outcome of the incident, this increase illustrates how heightened attention can produce economic effects even when art itself holds little intrinsic value. 

While the individuals involved may have profited from the artwork itself, Taco Bell ultimately benefited more from the sustained publicity. Ultimately, the incident demonstrates that in this contemporary culture, attention, rather than artistic merit, has become the primary driver of value.