Chicago police are searching for a couple who walked into a private gallery and stole a 17th-century Rembrandt etching from the wall.

The etching, called Adam and Eve, shows Adam holding out an apple to Eve in the Garden of Eden while a serpent looks on.

The couple, described as middle-aged, spent about five minutes in the Hilligoss Gallery Sunday afternoon before disappearing. After they had left the gallery, the etching by Rembrandt van Rijn was discovered to be missing.

Gallery owner Tom Hilligoss estimates the value of the etching at $60,000 US.

He was selling the etching on consignment as part of an estate sale.

The thieves, who had been seen before in the gallery, may have targeted the etching after finding a buyer, he said.

"They went straight for it," Hilligoss said of the thieves, who were not caught on security cameras.