5 THINGS ABOUT A DEGAS FOUND ON A BUS
1 WHAT HAPPENED?
French customs officers making a random check on a bus at a highway rest stop found a painting by Edgar Degas, the 19th-century impressionist master, which was stolen eight years ago from a museum in Marseille. Les Choristes, a pastel painted in 1877 measuring 32 by 25cm, was found in a suitcase in the luggage compartment. Its value is estimated at $1.25 million.
2 DID POLICE KNOW IT WAS REAL?
When the officers opened the suitcase a week ago Friday, they were surprised to find the painting. They handed it to art experts who said their preliminary exams showed it was the Degas painting that depicts a line of men singing in a scene from Don Juan, the opera.
3 HOW DID IT GET ON THE BUS?
When officers asked passengers who the case belonged to, they were met with a stony silence. The inquiry into how it came to be on the bus has been handed over to OCBC, the agency that investigates art theft. There were no signs of a break-in, leading police to believe it could be an inside job.
4 WHERE WAS THE PAINTING STOLEN?
Les Choristes went missing on the night of Dec. 31, 2009, from the Musée Cantini in Marseille. It was on loan from the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. “Its disappearance represented a heavy loss to the French impressionist heritage,” said Françoise Nyssen, the culture minister. City councillor Maurice Di Nocera called the theft “a disaster for the museum.”
5 HOW ARE OFFICIALS REACTING?
“It is wonderful,” said a spokesman. “It is the centenary of his death and we are organizing a huge show about Degas and the opera for 2019. It would have been a terrible loss for us to do it without this painting.”