Cézanne’s View of Auvers-sur-Oise Theft
On New Year’s Eve 1999 everyone in Oxford England was partying, enjoying fireworks, and celebrating the new millennium. Actually, let me correct that, almost everyone. That night, using the festivities as cover, someone, or someones, stole Cézanne’s View of Auvers-sur-Oise and it’s never been seen again.
View of Auvers-sur-Oise
Also referred to as Paysage d'Auvers-sur-Oise, Groupe de Maisons, Paysage d'île de France, or Auvers: Vue Générale du Village, this painting was created by Paul Cézanne while he was living in Auvers-sur-Oise, a small village north-west of Paris. Lots of artists would go there to get away from Paris and focus on their work, it’s where van Gogh was living when he died.
Cézanne was inspired by his time there when he created this work, in 1879-1880, several years after he lived there. The exact location he was depicting is unknown so it could just be a view he recalls that hasn’t yet been connected to the painting or more of an impression of the countryside from his memory.
Before the theft, it lived at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University.
The Theft
It’s December 31, 1999, in Oxford, England. The eve of the new millennium. Everyone is out celebrating, partying, enjoying the fireworks and welcoming in the new year. Everyone except for one (or maybe more) people who had planned to use the noise and distractions as the perfect cover for their crime.
At midnight the thieves climbed the scaffolding that surrounded the Ashmolean Museum, conveniently they were renovating and adding an extension to the library so the scaffolding allowed them to reach the roof easily. Above the Hindley Smith Gallery, which housed the painting, there were skylights. One of them was smashed by the thieves and they dropped a small smoke bomb into the space before descending on a rope ladder. They do have a flare for the dramatic.
The smoke bomb was a pretty clever idea because the thieves knew that they would be setting off alarms and that the museum had security cameras so they used this smoke to confuse any guards on duty and make it more difficult to get a clear shot of them on the tapes. They brought with them a small bag that contained a scalpel, tape, gloves, and a small fan. They used the fan to blow the smoke around more which was very effective.
There were security guards on duty that night and when they heard the alarms going off they checked the cameras, seeing the smoke they assumed that there was a fire in the gallery. Playing right into the thieves hands. They didn’t go into the space, as they thought it was on fire, and immediately called the police and firefighters. When they arrived at 1:43am they found no smoke in the gallery at all, just the remnants of the smoke bomb, and an empty space on the wall.
The thieves had used the scalpel to cut View of Auvers-sur-Oise out of its frame and then smashed the frame on the floor before climbing back up their ladder and down the scaffolding to disappear into the crowd. The whole thing took less than 10 minutes. So they were out of there waaaaaay before the police arrived.
The police quickly agreed with museum staff that this had been a planned hit. The thief/thieves had descended into the gallery, taken only the Cézanne and left immediately. They also agreed that whoever was responsible was a professional; “He obviously knew exactly what he was doing. He used the smoke device to prevent any security cameras or patrolling guards from seeing his face” (Ezard, 2000). As a result, the police thought that this individual probably had a buyer lined up for the piece, why else would they have broken in and only taken one thing?
The police knew that they needed help with this case so they called in customs and immigration staff at seaports and airports in case the painting was going to be smuggled out of the country, as well as art experts and art crime specialists.
In January there came a tip-off that the painting had been spotted at a West Midlands pub. The police rushed to the scene but as soon as they got there they realized it was a copy. Pretty easy to come to this realization as the paint was still wet. Most likely a painting created in 1880 would be dry by now.
After that was really nothing. The painting has never been seen again and no trace of it was ever found, or of the perpetrator. The police have never discussed any other leads publicly and the FBI has this theft on their list of the world’s top 10 art crimes, it would now be worth over $10 million. Everyone agrees that it is likely still in England in the hands of a shady collector so keep your eyes out when you’re over at your friends of dubious means houses.
Works Cited
Ezard, John. “Smoke Bomb Masks Theft of £3 Cezanne”. The Guardian. 2000. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/jan/03/johnezard