Burglars broke into a Eureka Springs antique store, stealing a dozen Persian rugs and a nude painting of Elsie Freund.
Gwen Bennett, the owner of Mitchell's Folly, said the burglary took place on Nov. 12, perhaps during the early morning hours when electricity to the city was off while Southwestern Electric Power Co. did work in the area.
Bennett said she got up and went for a walk about midnight while Eureka Springs was in the dark.
"The stars were spectacular," she said. "And there were no streetlights. It was magical. I walked around for an hour and thought 'this is the perfect night for a burglary.'"
About 5 p.m. on Nov. 12, she realized she was right. Someone had kicked in a door to Mitchell's Folly and stolen several items.
Bennett said police suspect there were two burglars, a man and a woman.
She said the Persian rugs were valued at about $7,000.
The painting of Elsie Freund was by her husband, Henry Louis Freund.
The Freunds were artists who lived in Eureka Springs. They ran a summer art school there in the 1940s.
Louis Freund died in 1999, and Elsie died in 2001.