According to police, a 53-year-old heroin addict “ripped off 39 paintings from New Haven venues, including $40,000 in art from Yale’s Slifka Center and the New Haven Free Public Library. The paintings were recovered during a weekend bust on a Hill area home, where a second man, age 47, had been allegedly accepting the art in exchange for bags of heroin.” A detective said: “These were not hardened criminals. They have drug habits.”