Art attacks
WHEN THE COPS HAD NOTHING TO GO ON!
★ SHOW me the Monet! For hundreds of years thieves have been stealing artworks worth a fortune and even the coronavirus lockdown hasn’t stopped them.
★ A £5million Vincent Van Gogh painting, The Parsonage Garden, has been taken from a Dutch museum, as the culprits took advantage of its Covid closure.
Here JAMES MOORE looks at other daring art heists…
FLUSH JOB: In 2003 three paintings worth millions by Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and Paul Gauguin were stolen from Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester. They turned up in a disused toilet with a note from the thieves saying they had only wanted to highlight the poor security. In September, a £4.8m gold toilet sculpture was stolen from Blenheim Palace, Oxon.
IN THE FRAME: In 1911 Leonardo Da Vinci masterpiece the Mona Lisa was pilfered from the Louvre in Paris. The thief was museum employee Vincenzo Peruggia, who hid it under his coat and walked out. He was caught trying to sell it two years later. The £1.5billion painting is now behind bulletproof glass.
DOUBLE TROUBLE: Edvard Munch painted two versions of The Scream – and both have been stolen. Thieves took one in 1994 from the national gallery in Oslo, Norway, leaving a cheeky note saying: “Thanks for the poor security.” It was recovered months later. The other was stolen from the city’s Munch museum in 2004. It was recovered in 2006.
SPIDER-MAN STRIKES: In 2010, cat burglar Vjeran Tomic stole paintings by artists including Picasso and Henri Matisse from the modern art museum in Paris, breaking through a gate and window. Nicknamed Spider-man, he was caught after a tip-off. COP THE LOT: In 1990 thieves stole 13 works of art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, US. A duo disguised themselves as police and took paintings by the likes of Rembrandt and Edouard Manet. The £400,000 haul is still missing.
WATER CAPER: Armed robbers stole paintings by Rembrandt and Pierre-auguste Renoir in 2000 from Sweden’s national museum, blowing up cars in Stockholm to distract cops. They made their getaway by speedboat. Police recovered the art and caught the thieves.
BRASS NECK: A £3m bronze statue by sculptor Henry Moore was stolen from his Hertfordshire estate in 2005. The thieves used a crane and truck to move the two tonne artwork. Police believe it was melted down and sold for just £1,500 in scrap metal.
DIAMOND WHEEZE: Last November a pair of thieves pulled off the “largest art theft in history”, snatching nearly £1bn worth of royal jewellery from Dresden castle in Germany. The jewels are still missing.