(Some) Stolen Art (after 1900, excluding Nazi pillaging) : 3D Gallery

Landscape with Two Cottages|Rembrandt|1654

A relatively small painting, Van Gogh took inspiration from Adolphe Monticelli for this piece, which he completed about 3 years before his death. It was on display in Cairo, where it was stolen in 2010 (it was apparently stolen from the same museum in 1977, but was quickly returned). Egyptian officials thought they had caught the thieves when two Italians attempted to board a flight at Cairo International Airport shortly after the theft occurred, but no formal arrests were made and the painting remains missing.

In late 2010, a court found 11 culture ministers negligent of their professional duties because of the theft.

Naguib Sawiris, an Egyptian billionaire, has put up a reward of $175,000 for information leading to the painting, which is worth between $50 and $55 million.

http://mosa.ziv.bz/?p=2443

http://www.go-star.com/antiquing/famous-antiques0416.htm

The Concert|Vermeer|1664

The most recent art theft on record took place in 2012 at the Kunsthal Museum in the Netherlands. Two Monet pieces were taken in addition to works by Gauguin, Matisse, Picasso, De Haan, and Lucian Freud from an avante-garde exhibit of over 150 artists to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Triton Foundation. The exact value of the works taken is unknown, but estimated in the upper millions.

The supposed thieves, who met on Tinder, were arrested in Romania in 2013, although the outcome of the court hearings are not readily available.

None of the works have been recovered, although nails and pigment of the correct age for the paintings were found in one suspect's fireplace.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/thieves-stoleand-maybe-burnedmillions-of-dollars-of-fine-art-13226734/

The Scream|Edvard Munch|1893

The Scream is a sort of nickname for the four version of pastels and paintings Munch did entitled "The Scream of Nature" between 1893 and 1910. There were actually two thefts of The Scream, one in 1994 and the second in 2004, from the National Gallery in Oslo and the Munch Museum, respectively.

The 1994 theft involved one of the two painted versions and occurred on the same day as the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics. The painting had been moved to a second story gallery near a window, and the two thieves went in and out through said window, leaving a note thanking the museum for their poor security. A $1 million ransom demand was delivered to the museum, but the National Gallery refused to pay. The British police worked with Norwegian law enforcement to set up a sting, and the painting was successfully recovered in May of 1994. The thieves were arrested and charged in 1996, but were released on legal grounds because the British undercover police had entered the country using false identities.

The 2004 theft involved the 1910 version of The Scream, as well as Munch's Madonna. Armed robbers broke into the museum and took these two works. Six men went to trial in 2006 for helping to plan or being in some way involved in the heist, but the painting was believed to have been destroyed by an accomplice. It was recovered, however, in relatively good condition, save a little water damage to the lower left corner, in the summer of 2006.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/31/AR2006083100783.html

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Portrait of a Lady|Gustav Klimt|1917-18

The Just Judges is the left panel of the polyptych Ghent Altarpiece, which was painted by Jan Van Eyck a few years after his brother Hubert designed it (although there is no easy way to verify this). The altarpiece resides at St. Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium. Since its creation in the early 15th century, the altarpiece has been censored, pillaged, forged, nearly destroyed in a fire, coveted by the Nazis, and stolen so many times that it is considered the most stolen artwork in the world.

The Boy in the Red Vest|Paul Cezanne|1890

The Just Judges is the left panel of the polyptych Ghent Altarpiece, which was painted by Jan Van Eyck a few years after his brother Hubert designed it (although there is no easy way to verify this). The altarpiece resides at St. Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium. Since its creation in the early 15th century, the altarpiece has been censored, pillaged, forged, nearly destroyed in a fire, coveted by the Nazis, and stolen so many times that it is considered the most stolen artwork in the world.

In 1934, the Just Judges panel was stolen from the cathedral, possibly by a Belgian man named Arsene Goedertier. The Bishop of Ghent received a ransom demand for one million francs to guarantee the safe return of the panel, but the panel was not returned.

On his deathbed, Goedertier claimed to be the only person who knew the location of the panel, and took the secret with him to his grave.

A replica was made in 1945 to put in its place.

There are numerous theories as to the who, what, and why of this theft, but there is no concrete evidence to support any of them. However, investigators are fairly certain the panel was actually hidden in the cathedral itself after it was stolen, but it cannot be proven without a doubt, nor can they determine where it went from there (the cathedral has been searched numerous times, and x-rays have been used to scan 10 feet below the floor). Tips continue to come in, but to this day no one knows where the panel is, and it is assumed by many to have been destroyed years ago.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/dec/20/ghent-altarpiece-most-stolen-artwork-of-all-time

The Chorus|Edgar Degas|1877

Also called "The Adoration", this painting was the result of Caravaggio's trip to Palermo, Sicily. It hung as the altarpiece at the Oratory of San Lorenzo until its theft in 1969, where at least two thieves (since the painting is almost 9 feet tall and just under 6 and a half feet wide, it is unlikely that one person could pull off the heist) cut the painting from its frame and looted the church, taking artifacts and other artwork.

The Sicilian Mafia are the most likely culprits of the theft, but no arrests have been made and the painting has never been recovered; it is rumored to have been destroyed in the late 1980s.

A copy was made for the filming of a documentary in 2016, and will hang there permanently.

http://www.caravaggio.org/nativity-with-st-francis-and-st-lawrence.jsp

http://art-crime.blogspot.com/2009/12/breaking-news-on-stolen-caravaggio.html

Poppy Flowers|Van Gogh|1887

The most recent art theft on record took place in 2012 at the Kunsthal Museum in the Netherlands. Two Monet pieces were taken in addition to works by Gauguin, Matisse, Picasso, De Haan, and Lucian Freud from an avante-garde exhibit of over 150 artists to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Triton Foundation. The exact value of the works taken is unknown.

The supposed thieves, who met on Tinder, were arrested in Romania in 2013, although the outcome of the court hearings are not readily available.

None of the works have been recovered, although nails and pigment of the correct age for the paintings were found in one suspect's fireplace.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/thieves-stoleand-maybe-burnedmillions-of-dollars-of-fine-art-13226734/

Charing Cross Bridge, London|Monet|1900

The theft of the painting probably happened in February of 1997 while the gallery was being renovated prior to a special exhibition. The reason authorities are unsure if this was a true theft or not is because a primary theory for the motive of the theft was to cover up the swap for a forgery that may have happened a few months prior. In 1997, Italian police discovered a high quality forgery in a package addressed to the former Italian Prime Minister. Italian police have discovered several very convincing forgeries. Thus far, the painting has not been recovered or evaluated for a monetary value, but the case was reopened in 2014 in the hope of matching a few partial fingerprints using new technology.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/mar/16/gustav-klimt-theft-italy-portrait-of-a-woman

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38242917

The Just Judges|Jan Van Eyck|1430-32

The Boy in the Red Vest, depicting a boy in traditional Italian clothing, was stolen in 2008 from the Foundation E.G. Bührle in Zürich, Switzerland.

Three other pieces were taken, but at $129 million the Cezanne was the museum's most valuable piece. Not much information is available about the heist itself, and the work was recovered in Serbia in 2012, and 4 men have been charged for the theft.

There are 3 other paintings in the series, each depicting a boy in traditional clothing but in different poses, and they are all housed in museums in the United States.

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/news/top-news/crime-and-litigation/4-charged-in-theft-of-cezannes-boy-in-the-red-vest/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/9200069/Stolen-Cezanne-painting-found-in-Serbia.html

Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence|Caravaggio|1609

The Chorus depicts the members of the chorus from the opera "Don Giovanni", which is based off of the fictional escapades of Don Juan. The music for the opera was written by Mozart, and the lyrics were composed by Lorenzo Da Ponte.

The painting was taken in 2009 from a museum in Marseille, where it was on loan from Paris. A night watchman was questioned and briefly detained, but he was released quickly and no one was formally charged for the theft. The work was missing until February of 2018, when it was found in a suitcase on a bus by police conducting a drug search. No tip was called in so authorities were unsure of the authenticity, but the work was signed by Degas and quickly verified. The investigation into who stole the painting is ongoing, but the million dollar prize has been returned to Paris.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/world/europe/degas-painting-bus.html

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(Some) Stolen Art (after 1900, excluding Nazi pillaging)