The Tokyo art exhibit opened to enthusiastic visitors, but many of those circulating weren't just there to soak in some culture -- they were casing the joint for a midnight raid.

Hours after the gallery closed for the night, a crowd had gathered ready to pounce on the artworks. The police station was nearby, but officers only intervened for crowd control, because all the pieces at the Stealable Art Exhibition were up for grabs.

The event was intended as "an experiment", to alter the relationship between artists and visitors, organiser Tota Hasegawa told AFP.

It was originally conceived as a low-key event that might attract some covert thievery, but word spread so fast on social media that a crowd of nearly 200 people packed the streets near the gallery hoping for a chance to grab a prize.

Would-be robbers were told they could raid the gallery from midnight, but the crowd was so big that the theft started half an hour earlier, and the exhibition that had been billed as running for up to 10 days was emptied of art in less than 10 minutes.

Yusuke Hasada, 26, was a rare winner, gripping a crumpled 10,000 yen ($93) banknote in a frame, which was part of the "My Money" installation by Gabin Ito. 

He arrived an hour before midnight only to see a crowd had already formed.

Since there was no apparent queue, he manoeuvered himself into a spot right in front of the gallery.

"The moment the staff said they should open early due to the big crowd, people rushed in from behind me. I was in the front, and I almost fell over," he told AFP.

"It was scary." 

- Auction resales -

Hasada said he plans to hang the work, among those on display supplied by 10 contemporary artists, in his home.

But not everyone stealing the items appeared to have the same idea, with several artworks appearing on online auction sites within hours with price tags as high as 100,000 yen. 

Even after the exhibit was emptied out, would-be thieves continued arriving, forcing a nearby police station to dispatch officers for crowd control.

"You are blocking traffic!" officers shouted.

Yuka Yamauchi, a 35-year-old systems engineer, showed up 15 minutes before midnight but was too late.

"I entered with my husband and it was just packed with so many people... We saw larger artworks taken out by those who came earlier," she said.

"I haven't seen so many people in a long time as we have been refraining from going out due to the coronavirus."

But Yamauchi didn't leave completely empty-handed.

"I've got a clip... It must have been one of those used for the cloth installation. I found it dropped, so I picked it up as a souvenir," she said with a laugh.

- 'Well-mannered' thieves -

Yamauchi recognised the clip because she was at a preview of the artwork six hours earlier to "case" the venue.

She said she would happily come back for a similar "participatory" art event, where some of the artists showcased work that was purpose-made for those hoping to make off with it.

Naoki "SAND" Yamamoto's work "Midnight Vandalist" was composed of a stack of peelable pages with printed illustrations.

Another work was a large cloth printed with lines to be cut along with scissors.

But would-be thieves were responsible for organising their own getaway vehicles. A notice was posted at the entrance: "We do not assist art thieves with packing or transporting artworks, so you are responsible for everything."

Organiser Hasegawa told AFP he later met with police -- perhaps not used to such large-scale larceny in Japan, with its ultra-low crime rate -- to clear up any misunderstandings about the event and the crowd it attracted.

He said the budding thieves had proved to be "well-mannered."

They might have been there to stage robberies, but when "someone lost a bag with a wallet in it, it was passed onto a staffer and safely returned to the owner."

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The tiny group of super rich women who buy the ruinously expensive handmade creations that adorn the runways of Paris haute couture week knew that meant their favourite designers would have to come to them.

"I thought they would be upset," the French courtier Julien Fournie told AFP as he prepared looks for his film for the French capital's first virtual fashion week, which starts Monday.

"But it was quite the opposite," he added.

Haute couture's made-to-measure creations -- which are only shown in Paris -- can cost the price of a luxury sports car.

With no glitzy shows to go to this time, the jetset queens that usually patronise them expect their own personalised presentations in their palaces and penthouses.

Fournie, who trained as a doctor before turning his passion and considerable anatomical know-how to couture, said he was used to flying to the Middle East and Asia with the head of his studio, Mademoiselle Jacqueline, for fittings and adjustments.

- Royal clientele -

The difference between couture creations and those you buy off the rail is between night and day, he insisted.

"While you have to get into ready-to-wear clothes" -- adapting your body to the norm -- "in haute couture, the clothes are made to wrap you," the designer said.

And Fournie only makes one-off pieces to ensure the exclusivity that his very well-heeled clients crave.

"Once a client from a royal family cancelled an order after seeing a similar creation worn by Lady Gaga," said the house's director, Jean-Paul Cauvin.

"For them, exclusively is everything, and they don't want that tainted by fame or vulgarity."

For that reason, Fournie tends to avoid lending his dresses out to stars for red carpet events, except when the singer or actress has a style that really chimes with the "DNA of the house".

Fournie's film for his virtual Paris show on Tuesday is more of a teaser than a classic run through the collection.

- Cut for 'real women' -

"We are not showing too much," Cauvin said, to avoid any unseemly competition that might sometimes arise after shows when "clients really set their heart on a particular look and want to put an option on it" before anyone else does.

This time, without a formal show, it will be more about pampering the client, Cauvin added. "The couturier will have dresses in mind just for them."

Fournie is known for designing for "real women" with "breasts and hips and not for gamines" or the androgynous clothes-hanger models that often dominate the catwalks. 

"We don't create fashion, we create personalities," he told AFP as he put the finishing touches to his "Storm dress", a silk gown entirely embroidered with goose feathers.

"Whoever wears this after the coronavirus will be like an angel returning to Earth," Fournie declared.

"I want to help my clients fulfil their destiny, support them, and help them take flight," he added with a flourish.

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© Agence France-Presse