Evolution: Becoming A Criminal

On a brisk winter morning in 2004, after leaving early from their final exams for the fall semester, four 19 and 20-year-old college students park an unmarked van outside of the Transylvania University Private Collections Museum. Home to a collection of some of the most valuable rare books and paintings in the world, including John James Audubon’s Birds of America and Charles Darwin’s On The Origin of Species, the four young men enter the building with the intention to steal history.

As one of the most audacious art heists in U.S. history unfolds, this true story explores human nature in the transition from adolescence into adulthood, and how quickly the misguided rebellion and angst of youthful struggles to find meaning and one’s place in the world can devolve into criminal behavior.

This stranger than fiction true story is the inspiration for the major motion picture American Animals.