Young Writers Society

Hey pals!

My LMS story features an art thief, and I thought I should probably do some research into cases of art thief to work out some of the details of his life.

I've looked into a couple of famous cases of art theft (such as the theft of Picasso's Weeping Woman from the National Gallery of Victoria in the 80s), but if anyone else is aware of any other famous cases of art being stolen (extra points if it was a statue, but any kind of art thievery is good!).

My story's set in the modern day, so the more recent the better, but any suggestions are sweet.

Any information on stolen pieces being recovered/about art theft people generally would also be uber helpful.

Thanks in advance!

Well the most famous art theft case of course!!! And my favorite instance!! *takes a deep breath because I can not contain my excitement about Leonardo da Vinci*

The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci was stolen at some point. It's a tremendous story actually, and there's a fairly good documentary on it that I think I watched from YouTube or something. If I come across it again I'll send it your way.

Basically the Mona Lisa painting (and therefore also Leonardo) may have never have became famous if the painting hadn't been stolen. It was stolen in 1911 from the Louvre in Paris, by someone that thought his country, Italy, really rightfully owned it (there may have been some mental illness at play in this case) but anyways the Louvre staff/guards were super embarrassed that a painting had been stolen (they didn't notice right away) and posted pictures of the painting in news papers world wide -- which is how basically it became so famous. It was one of the first paintings that was really internationally known/recognizable because of the fact people were printing these ads asking for information for the stolen item and offering a reward. Tons of people actually went to the Louvre to just stare at the place on the wall the Mona Lisa had been because it was craziness, how does someone just walk away from a museum with a painting?

The guy who stole the painting actually had it for years before they were finally able to recover it. And it turns out the reason he took that particular painting was because it was a striking face & most importantly small; he could easily carry it from the building under his smock (he had been hired as a handyman at the Louvre earlier). In theory, Leonardo da Vinci & the Mona Lisa would have never have risen to quite the cultural/artistic icons as they have become if the painting had never been stolen. And that is totally fascinating in my opinion! [Also a fun fact: Pablo Picasso was actually considered a suspect for the theft for a bit!]

"The Scream" by Edvard Munch is a more modern day art theft case. It was actually stolen twice interestingly enough. The thieves got away with the painting fairly easy because there wasn't much security around, and tried to get ransom for it. They got busted though, and then the painting was stolen again and recovered. I guess the security people didn't learn their lesson!

The only other big art theft that I can think of at the moment is the art stolen by Nazis in WWII. A staggering amount of art was stolen from private collections during WWII and some never recovered although efforts have successfully been made to bring back some of the art pieces that were stolen.

It's interesting how often art is stolen and also what "ownership" of art really means. I mean does "art" belong to the artist, the artist's country of origin, the museum it's held in, the public etc. Art often gets wrapped up in our ideals of value; religion, patriotism, culture, beauty, wealth, power.

Some art theft that goes back even further than the ones I listed would be Napoleon's art theft/looting after all of his conquering and wars. He brought back tons of art which ended up going largely in what is now the Louvre. Some of this was considered legally confiscated/earned/bought, but others seem to be kind of sketchy. And Napoleon took a lot of art.

And further back than that (like 700 AD), there was the history of iconoclasm against the Eastern Christian church. Where people decided they disliked the use of icons in worship so much that they were willing to kill and destroy religious iconography that other people venerated. Many icons (which are in a way a form of art) were tragically destroyed and stolen from monasteries, public places, and even private homes. Icons were often crafted using expensive materials in the painting itself, so these would have financial as well as spiritual & historical losses. While some of this really passionate anti-icon sentiment sort of muddled out, the theft of icons still happens now and again in modern day - like in Cyprus after the Turkish Invasion in the 1970s.

I saw art theft and immediately wanted to add my personal favorite case: the Isabella Stewart Gardner Heist, which the stolen artwork's combined cost of $500 million. Basically, in early March in 1990, 13 works of art were stolen. The main items that were stolen were The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, several Rembrandt works, and a bronze statue of an eagle.

The incident started out with two of the robbers disguised as police officers and knocked on the security door, saying that they were responding to a disturbance call. This was against security protocol, but the security guard that was working still let them in. There is also a video recording of the same security guard letting in someone else, I believe, a day before the heist happened, and some speculate that it was one of the robbers checking the place out.

Anyway, one of the robbers stated that the security guard looked familiar and that there were some warrants for his arrest. The security guard then steps away from the desk (where there was a button to alert the police) and gets handcuffed by the robber. There was also another security guard who was then also handcuffed. One of the robbers stated that this was a robbery and put the two security dudes in the basement, duck taping their hands, feet, and heads.

After this, they then went on their stealing spree. Along with this, they set off an alarm but they quickly smashed it. It is also believed that they also smashed the video recording of them stealing the artworks, after their spree.

This is also an unsolved case as the FBI is still trying to figure out who stole the precious items.

That's the only one I know but I'm sure there have been plenty of others.

Wikipedia lists famous art theft cases here

According to Artsy, a stolen piece of art goes to the black market, or possibly works as trade between two gangs (like the Mafia). And the article states that only one-tenth of the pieces stolen are returned safely!

Derren Brown, The Great Art Robbery. =D