Portrait of a Lady Robbery
Ok, ok, ok very excited about this case!! It is pretty recent (part of it takes place in 2020), it involves robbery, forgery, mystery, escapes, a discovery, a major twist, and authentication. We will experience this rollercoaster together so strap in!
First things first comrades, the painting in question. It is Portrait of a Lady by Gustav Klimt, no surprises there. She was painted in 1916-1917 and was actually painted over another work by Klimt, Portrait of a Young Lady, this is called a double portrait. It is said that the painting that was covered up was a portrait of a woman Klimt was in love with but who unfortunately died, so he painted over the work to try and deal with the pain. See, we’re already off to a strong start! The lady who now lives on this canvas is beautiful and art critics say she is painted in an unusually lively style.
The Good Part
Not wasting any time here, onto what you came for. In February 1997 there was a large planned exhibit at the Galleria d’arte Moderna Ricci Oddi in Piacenza, Italy. Of course, this is the gallery where Portrait of a Lady was living. As the gallery was undergoing some renovations while getting ready for the exhibit so paintings were being packed up and moved around. Additionally, the alarm system had been turned off because people were coming and going, and no one really noticed for a little while that the Lady was missing, they all thought she had been moved somewhere for safekeeping.
Finally the gallery staff called the police who came and investigated. Eventually, they found the Lady’s frame on the roof of the building next to a skylight. BUT the skylight would have been too small for the painting in the frame to fit through, so why was it there??? (We’ll come back to this). They had no leads and the case was getting cold until April 1, 1997, when they intercepted a package addressed to the former PM of Italy (hiding out from the law at the time in Tunisia, lol). When they opened it they found the Klimt! Of course, it can’t be that easy and it was very quickly discovered that it was a high-quality forgery where they even took the time to paint it as a double portrait like the original.
The Twist
In 2013 the case was reopened by the local police because they wanted to see if a fingerprint they found on the frame would lead them anywhere. It didn’t. BUT because of the renewed attention to the case a local journalist was able to connect them with an art thief, who was his drinking buddy, who claimed to have some answers.
This man told them that it was, in fact, him who carried out both robberies of Portrait of a Lady. You’re probably reading this going “both?? She only told us about one”. That is probably what the police were saying too. It turns out that the original painting was actually stolen in November 1996 through well planned, easy inside job. At that time the thief replaced the Lady with a very high-quality fake (also a double portrait). SO THAT MEANS in 1997 it was the FORGERY that was stolen before the exhibit. When they asked the thief why he went in again to steal the fake that he had planted in the first place he said that with the exhibit coming up Klimt experts might well have come to see the painting and they would definitely be able to tell it wasn’t real. This would have had terrible consequences for his accomplice on the inside so they had to get it out of there.
Just take a minute to digest, this is ~insane~
Oh also, he said that he left the gold frame on the roof as just a little dramatic flourish. LOVE.
Also also he mentioned at the end of this interview that the original painting would make its way back to the gallery by the 20th anniversary of the theft (of the copy, so January 2017).
The Discovery
So now, fast forward to December 2019. The thief has confessed, we know that the forgery and the original are still missing. HOWEVER, he did say that the painting was going to be returned, so where is it??
On December 10 two gardeners working on the gallery grounds were clearing some ivy away from the side of the building. Behind the ivy, they found a small metal panel which they opened and inside was a garbage bag. What do you think was inside the garbage bag? Ok, I’ll tell you, it was Portrait of a Lady!!! She was found! But was she real??
I’m just messing with you, they did a few weeks of tests and eventually, in January 2020, they announced that the canvas that was found was indeed the original work. She is in surprisingly good condition save for a small scratch from getting her out of the frame.
Questions
Obviously, I have approximately 1,000,000 questions and approximately 0 answers. So I’ll just list them out and we can all just ponder them at home at an appropriate physical distance. Ok? Ok.
Why was the painting stolen in the first place? If the plan wasn’t to sell it or they weren’t commissioned to steal it why bother?? Also it is worth about $66 million so why wouldn’t you sell it??
When was the painting actually returned to the gallery grounds? Did they return it in 2017 (the 20 year anniversary) and then it wasn’t found until 2019? Or did it never leave the gallery grounds at all?? The thieves actually kind of answered this in a letter to their local newspaper they said they stored it in a house and they gave the address to the police in 2016 however they weren’t believed and the police never looked into this. Experts think this is probably the true story as the canvas would be in much worse shape if it had been outside the entire time.
Where did the forgery that the police intercepted in the mail come from? Why was it going to the old PM? Was it just another thing to confuse them and throw them off the scent??
What’s going to happen to the thief? Probably nothing, since the statute of limitations has run out for this crime but at least the painting is home.
Works Cited
McGrath, Katherine. “How Two Gardeners Discovered a Stolen $66M Gustav Klimt Inside a Gallery Wall”. Architectural Digest. 2020. https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/stolen-dollar66m-gustav-klimt-inside-a-gallery-wall
Paradiso, Max. “The Mystery of the Stolen Klimt”. BBC News. 2016. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38242917
Rea, Naomi. “In a Twist, Two Serial Art Thieves Confess to Having Hidden Klimt’s ‘Portrait of a Lady’ Inside a Wall so that it Might Be Recovered”. Artnet News. 2020. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/klimt-thieves-confess-to-returning-the-stolen-painting-found-by-gardeners-in-an-italian-gallery-1757958