The First (?) Art Heist
Today we’re going way WAY back and talking about possibly the first ever art theft. It definitely isn’t the first time in human history that someone stole a work of art or aesthetic item from someone else but this specific event is commonly referred to as the first known art heist so I’m rolling with it. Let’s go!
Background on the Painting
The painting that we’re going to be discussing today is The Last Judgment, a triptych painted by Flemish painter Hans Memling between 1467 and 1471. I told you we were going way back. This beautiful piece was commissioned by Angelo Tani, an agent of the Medici family. The outside of the piece(if you close the two outside panels in) depicts both Tani and his wife kneeling in prayer. On the inside is really where the detail is.
The whole thing depicts the last judgment (duh because of the name) during the second coming of Jesus Christ. In the central panel we can see Jesus himself sitting in judgment on the world, we also have St. Michael the Archangel weighing souls and driving the damned towards hell. On the right hand panel we see more sinners being dragged down into the depths of hell and on the left hand panel are the saved being guided into heaven by St. Peter and other angels.
As you can see, it’s a beautiful piece of work. Fun fact, it was actually so masterfully painted that people attributed it to van Eyck before later identifying it as a Memling.
The Heist
Let’s get to the story here. So we talked a little bit about Tani, the man who commissioned this piece. He worked for the Medici family bank and before he was stationed in London for work he commissioned this triptych as the altarpiece for a chapel he founded, dedicated to St. Michael, northeast of Florence, Italy. Memling was working in Bruges at the time so when he finished the piece he had to ship it (literally SHIP it, by boat) to Italy to be installed in the chapel.
Now we have to introduce someone new to the story. Paul Beneke. He is referred to as a ‘privateer’, tbh I had to look up how this was different from a pirate but now I can tell you. Since the Anglo-Hanseatic War was going on at the time (1473) Beneke can be called a privateer because he was engaging in maritime warfare under a commission of war. I guess a pirate would be someone who does this even when it isn’t wartime. Funny enough, in non-wartimes Beneke was actually a German town councilor of Danzig.
So back to the story. The painting is being shipped from Bruges to Florence in 1473. While on the high seas, the vessel was captured by Beneke and his boys. They didn’t target it because they knew the painting was on board, it just happened to be part of the loot they got that day.
This is where things start to get very interesting. So the ship that was being used to transport the painting, the St. Matthew, had a registered owner named Tommaso Portinari BUT it was actually owned by England. Because of this technicality, when the owners of the ship, and the goods that were stolen, asked for their things back and called for Beneke to be punished, the region of Danzig defended him. They argued that the seizure was a legitimate act of war as the Hanseatic League was at war with England at the time (so because the boat was owned by England it’s legit during wartime). This was taken all the way to papal court but ultimately it was ruled that it was a legitimate act. So, the painting and all of the other stolen items were never returned to their owners. The technicality here is so annoying because it was a painting created by a Flemish man, commissioned by an Italian, bound for Italy and was just its bad luck to end up on and English ship at that period of time. UGH.
You might be wondering where the painting ended up. Beneke donated it (how generous) to the St. George Brothers church in Danzig, Germany. From there it eventually moved to the Basilica of the Assumption in Gdańsk, Poland. And finally, in the 20th century it was moved once again to the place where it still is, The National Museum in Gdańsk, Poland.
So this triptych has NEVER hung in the chapel that it was commissioned for, it’s never even been to Italy and it still hangs in a Polish museum as one of their cultural treasures. Wild.
Works Cited
“Famous Art Thefts: The Last Judgment”. Artful History. 2012. http://artfulhistory.blogspot.com/2012/06/famous-art-thefts-last-judgment.html
Newman, Anne. “The First Known Art Heist”. Art 4 Life. 2021. https://www.anart4life.com/the-first-known-art-heist/