Nirvana International and below left, Amit Shrama, after the gallery opened last summer

Nirvana International, the jewelry-and-art gallery at 246 W. Broadway, was burglarized yesterday. After his wife let me know, I stopped by this afternoon to offer my condolences to owner Amit Sharma, who explained what happened. First, the thieves glued the lock of the building’s main door so no one would interrupt them, and then they broke in via a fourth-floor window that faced the under-construction 1 N. Moore. They went down to the second floor, broke into the office there, and then broke through the floor, entering Nirvana’s office via a rope ladder (it’s still visible through the front window). The thieves removed the door from the safe and took everything inside—although, in a relatively small blessing, not the art on the walls. Somehow, they knew how to avoid tripping the alarms.

As anyone would be, Amit is crushed. “I can’t help but cry whenever I think about a piece that’s lost,” he said despairingly. “They don’t even know what they have. They’re going to melt down 300-year-old bangles.” Because more than $100,000 was stolen, a specialized police squad has taken over the case, and the thieves left a lot of equipment in their wake, so let’s hope they’ll get caught, and quickly.

In the meantime, send your good thoughts to Amit, or better yet, stop by. He’s a truly lovely guy, one who was delighted by how warmly Tribeca had welcomed him.