No one can say that they haven’t imagined pulling off the perfect heist.
Whether it is for cold, hard cash or a priceless artifact, you can’t sit through Entrapment or Ocean’s Eleven without speculating about how you would go about pulling off the perfect caper. Of course, none of us would actually go for it.
In 1911, a man named Vincenzo Peruggia stole the Mona Lisa from its home in the Louvre. After a failed attempt to repatriate the painting to its rightful homeland the bandit was caught in Italy two years later. Unfortunately for Peruggia, the Mona Lisa was returned to France. That was 1911. Now in 2010 it would be virtually impossible to steal the famed DaVinci painting.
I know what you’re thinking: Art theft is a genuine lost art. No one these days has the guts to try to overcome the intricate security systems manned by supercomputers. Yet, in 1990, an epic 13 paintings were stolen from the Gardner Museum in Boston. Among these 13 paintings were works by Rembrandt, Edgar Degas and most famously Johannes Vermeer’s The Concert, currently believed to be the most valuable painting ever stolen. All the paintings from the 1990 heist remain missing and are collectively worth $500 million.
Although Edvard Munch created a few different versions of The Scream, it still remains one of the most sensational art thefts in history because it has been stolen twice, first in 1994 during the Lillehammer Olympics in Norway, then again in 2004 from the Munch Museum in Oslo.
Over the Christmas break, I was surfing the Internet and came across a news story on CBC that someone had robbed a private collection in France. Among the stolen items were works by Pablo Picasso and Henri Rousseau. I hope the owner has insurance. This particular theft happened only shortly after a theft at a museum in Marseille where an Edgar Degas painting was stolen. So, I suppose it is still possible to steal art in the age of the supercomputer. I’m almost willing to bet that a pair of Dobermann would be a more effective security measure.
To me, art theft is a kind of game. A constant, neverending interchange of finders-keepers.
To me, art theft is a kind of game. A constant, neverending interchange of finders-keepers.
I appreciate museums and the service they do for the public, and they will always hold the majority of famous art, but I think it’s nice that art still gets stolen, in a romantic kind of way. It makes me think of people who truly love the art and want to be close to it, like Stephane Breitweiser, the French thief who admitted to stealing 238 paintings in his lifetime — 60 of which were destroyed by his mother when she caught wind of his arrest. I commend any thief who can, in this day and age, manage to pull off an art heist. Without violence, of course.
The original owners or creators of most famous art pieces are long gone and most artifacts and artworks are scattered all over the bloody place. Whether in the private collections of sickeningly wealthy people or museums like the Louvre, I don’t truly believe someone can own a famous piece of art. Even if you buy a piece of art from a friend of yours, chances are it will outlive you. After the artist or owner dies, who owns the art?
A lot of people would say that art belongs to everyone. I say no! I say art can belong to whoever wants it the most. And in a lot of cases, those people will steal to get it. It is all a part of the game.
– –
image: Danni Siemens