stolen art

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$100M Stolen Painting Hung in Couple's Bedroom for Years

But did Jerry and Rita Alter brazenly steal it from the University of Arizona Museum?

(Newser) - Jerry and Rita Alter were worldly, fascinating, and kept a stolen Willem de Kooning painting in their bedroom—but did they actually steal it? A few clues may tell the tale. The Alters had moved from New York City to rural New Mexico in their 50s when, the day after...

30 Years Later, Stolen Painting Being Returned

Marc Chagall work, stolen from a NYC apartment in 1988, is worth up to $900K

(Newser) - From the time his father purchased it for $50 in 1913, Ernest Heller was free to take in the dark brushstrokes of one of Marc Chagall's earliest works, "Othello and Desdemona." That changed when the 1911 painting and additional works by Renoir and Picasso were stolen from...

Painting Stolen From Museum in 2009 Just Found on Bus

'The Chorus Singers' by Edward Degas is worth nearly $1M

(Newser) - A 141-year-old painting worth nearly $1 million turned up on a bus outside of Paris this month—over eight years after being stolen from a museum, the New York Times reports. According to the BBC , The Chorus Singers by Edward Degas, a French Impressionist master, was stolen from a museum...

His 'Cool' Find at Estate Sale Was a Stolen Masterpiece

Painting by de Kooning is returned to University of Arizona 31 years after heist

(Newser) - "I just thought it was a cool painting," David Van Auker tells the Arizona Republic . He has good taste. It turns out the painting—which he purchased at a New Mexico estate sale—is a Willem de Kooning that was stolen 31 years ago from the University of...

His Girlfriend's Dad Gave Him a Gift—One Lost for Decades

Sculpture went missing from a Colombian museum sometimes after 1939

(Newser) - There's a 1939 record of a small figurine being part of Colombia's National Museum's catalogue. From there, nothing: The sculpture vanished from the Cartagena museum, but there is no documentation regarding how or when. It's now been recovered, thanks to a conscientious art historian and the...

FBI Digs for Stolen Art at Aging Mobster's Home

Robert Gentile linked to infamous 1990 heist in Boston

(Newser) - Authorities aren't giving up the search for $500 million in paintings stolen in one of the largest art thefts in US history. On Monday, the FBI searched the property of an 80-year-old mobster linked to the 1990 theft of 13 paintings—including three Rembrandts, a Vermeer, and a Manet—...

Squatter Allegedly Helps Himself to Mansion's Art

Cops say he stole and sold more than $300K worth of paintings

(Newser) - A 39-year-old man was arrested Sunday for allegedly squatting in the guest house of a historic San Francisco mansion while stealing and selling nearly a dozen paintings off its walls. Police were called to the vacant mansion—put on the market in 2012 for $25 million—for reports of a...

Stolen Gauguin Was on Factory Worker's Wall for Decades

He didn't realize it until son saw it in a book

(Newser) - They looked like nice enough paintings, so a factory worker in Italy shelled out $30 back in 1975 for the two works at a public auction. They'd been abandoned on a train, after all, so they couldn't be that valuable, right? Wrong, reports the BBC . The Fiat worker...

'Complicated' Cuban Art Heist Uncovered

Paintings from national museum turn up in Miami

(Newser) - They're not quite working together, but American and Cuban authorities are both looking into the theft of at least 70 artworks from a Havana museum. In the first such heist reported since the 1959 Cuban Revolution, paintings worth a total of around $1.5 million were apparently cut from...

1980s Beau Casts Doubt on 'Flea Market' Renoir Story

He, 2 other witnesses place 2009 'find' in family's home decades ago

(Newser) - The case of the Renoir supposedly purchased at a flea market for $7 in 2009 continues to unspool dramatically: Now the Washington Post finds three witnesses who say On the Shore of the Seine hung in Marcia Fouquet's Virginia home in the 1980s and 1990s. That would seem to...

Stolen Rembrandt Found 7 Years Later

Police find 'Portrait of the Father' in Serbia

(Newser) - Rembrandt's "Portrait of the Father," stolen for the second time back in 2006 from a museum in Serbia, has been recovered. Police found the $4 million painting about 40 miles away from the museum, but three other paintings stolen at the same time are yet to be...

Picasso, Matisse, Monet Works Stolen in Huge Heist

Several paintings lifted from Kunsthal Museum

(Newser) - Several paintings have been stolen in an overnight break-in at a Dutch museum, including a Picasso, a Matisse, and two Monets, the BBC reports. The Kunsthal Museum has no permanent collection, and is currently showing works by more than 150 famous artists as part of the Triton Foundation's 20th...

FBI Busts 2 Selling $3M Stolen Matisse

Masterpiece had been missing for a decade

(Newser) - A decade after it was stolen, crooks thought they had found a buyer for a $3 million Henri Matisse masterpiece. But when they delivered the goods to a Miami Beach location, they were busted by undercover FBI agents, according to officials. Matisse's 1925 "Odalisque in Red Pants" was...

Serbs Recover Stolen $100M Cezanne

Four busted for 2008 art heist

(Newser) - Police in Serbia have recovered a masterpiece by Paul Cezanne four years after it was stolen from a Swiss museum in one of Europe's biggest-ever art heists. Four men were arrested as they tried to sell Boy in the Red Vest, which was worth more than $100 million when...

Museum Reports Stolen Painting, 12 Years Later

Gallery wanted to make sure it hadn't been misplaced first

(Newser) - When a $200,000 painting went missing from Australia's National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, the gallery wanted to be sure it did not falsely accuse a staff member of theft when the painting could simply have been misplaced. So it searched for Richard Parkes Bonington's Low Tide...

Tip Leads Police to Stolen Rembrandt

It was reportedly found in a local church

(Newser) - Authorities have recovered the Rembrandt drawing stolen Saturday from a California Ritz-Carlton, after getting a tip that it was in a local church, the Los Angeles Times reports. The Judgment, an 11-by-6 pen-and-ink artwork worth $250,000 or more, was being displayed on an easel and apparently wasn't fastened...

Rembrandt Drawing 'The Judgment' Stolen From California Hotel
 Rembrandt Lifted From LA Hotel 
Aug 15, 2011 8:19 AM CDT

Rembrandt Lifted From LA Hotel

Drawing stolen while curator was distracted

(Newser) - A small pen-and-ink drawing by Rembrandt was stolen from a California Ritz-Carlton Saturday night in what detectives are calling a "well-thought-out and well-planned theft." The Judgment, an 11-by-6-inch drawing worth more than $250,000, was on display at the Marina del Rey hotel during an exhibit for potential...

Getty to Return Dutch Painting Stolen by Nazis

Heirs still seeking hundreds of others

(Newser) - The Getty Museum is the first museum in North America to agree to return a painting looted by the Nazis from a Dutch Jewish art collector. The Los Angeles institute will return Landscape With Cottage and Figures to the heirs of art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, whose collection was confiscated by...

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