A CO Antrim doctor has confessed to the brazen theft of a 6ft portrait of Steve McQueen from a Belfast hotel.
Ballymena GP Dr Jill Purce, in her early 60s, has admitted her involvement in what police dubbed 'The Great Escape' on the evening of Sunday, October 16.
Dr Purce and another woman in her 60s, wearing a zebra print jacket, were caught on CCTV taking the artwork from the new Bullitt Hotel on Ann Street at around 8.15pm.
The pair abandoned the endeavour when when they were unable to fit the 6ft 4in artwork into their car.
The black and white image of the late actor standing against a wall and smoking was later recovered, slightly damaged, on Donegal Quay.
Bullitt Belfast, named after the Steve McQueen movie of the same name, had only opened to the public the day before the theft.
Speaking to the Sunday Life Dr Purvis said she deeply regretted her actions.
"It was just a moment of madness, I think very few of us go through life without doing something stupid," she said.
"I think I did it maybe because I could do it, it was a bit like the Thomas Crown Affair."
"I'm just a huge Steve McQueen fan, I have photographs of him, signed photographs," Dr Purce added.
The PSNI, who initially launched an online appeal for information following the crime said enquiries are continuing and no arrests have been made at this stage.
The Steve McQueen portrait has now been secured to the wall at the Bullitt Hotel to prevent any repeat of the incident.
