Paintings are especially popular among thieves. The most notorious crimes in art
He writes in a very non-trivial and funny way on the topic of art criticism. Author of the book “Disgusting Art. Humor and Horror of Masterpieces of Painting” tells about the bizarre fate of Raphael’s painting, stolen by the Germans during the war, which she personally considers the most expensive of the stolen paintings.
The ratings of stolen art are usually topped by all sorts of whistling Picasso, whose prices at world auctions amounted to more than a hundred million dollars. Unlike this picture - which no one valued with money. But, in my personal opinion, it is she who is the most valuable of the lost. Because Picasso painted thousands of paintings, and Raphael only dozens. Admire this masterpiece with me.
How did it happen that this masterpiece was stolen? Everything is quite predictable: World War II.
The painting, like Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine, was bought in Italy in the early 1800s by Prince Czartoryski, who brought them home to Poland. That's where it was kept long years, since the 1880s in the Princes' Museum in Krakow.
There are versions according to which “Portrait young man"(1513-1514) is a self-portrait of the artist. This opinion is based on the similarity with the only reliable (according to Vasari) image of Raphael - in the crowd in the fresco “The School of Athens”.
In 1939, the three most valuable paintings from the Czartoryski collection were packed into a chest with the letters LRR (Leonardo, Rembrandt, Raphael) and hidden. However, the collection was found by the Germans and sent to the Reich. The portrait was briefly in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin, but ultimately it was to become part of the exhibition of the Hitler Museum in Linz. As a result of unknown circumstances - perhaps as a gift from Hitler - the painting fell into the hands of Hans Frank, the Governor-General of Poland. Until the end of the war it probably hung in Frank's residence in Wawel. That's where she was at least last seen.
Copy of the painting kept at the Accademia Carrara (Bergamo). It is believed that the colors in these lists are “more true” than those on the only color reproduction postcard from the thirties
Fleeing Krakow before the Soviet offensive, Frank ordered “his property” to be taken to Germany - first to Silesia, and then to his own villa in Neuhaus am Schliersee. His art plenipotentiary, Wilhelm Palesier, allegedly confused the portrait with another work, which ultimately led to its disappearance.
A copy in the Canterbury City Council Museums and Galleries (UK), also in the first photo in the post
The Americans arrested Frank on May 3, 1945, pending trial for war crimes (he was executed in 1946 by the Nuremberg verdict). The Polish representative on the Allied Art Recovery Commission noted some of the paintings stolen by Frank and demanded their return on behalf of the Czartoryski Museum. However, the portrait of the young man and 843 other items were missing from the warehouse. (But “The Lady with an Ermine” was found and returned.)
Still from Episode 22 of The Simpsons Season 8, “An Angry Abe Simpson and His Unfinished Grandson in “The Curse of the Flying Piranhas””
After the war, the painting was not found, and it is unknown what happened to it. Sometimes some rumors appear, but they all turn out to be groundless.
In 2016, the Czartoryski collection was sold to Poland - with the right to claim the painting if it ever resurfaces (as well as 843 other missing works from the same collection). Sometimes some of these objects come up (a carpet, a crucifix).
In the museum, next to Leonardo's painting, there is an empty photo frame.
How much could “Portrait” cost if it appeared now? Not at all, this is state property.
A still from Clooney's film The Monuments Men, where it is assumed that the painting was destroyed
But if the Czartoryskis had reserved the right to it and put it up for auction as their legal property, then the portrait could really outdo Leonardo’s “Savior of the World” for half a billion (because his biography is more reliable and in general more beautiful picture by her own). And he would have flown away to some Arabs...
On the topic of how much precious stuff the Krauts stole and how surprising it is that almost everything was returned, I recommend documentary from National Geographics. In Russian called "Defenders" cultural heritage"(in English - The Monuments Men). A standard Western TV documentary about art. Much more exciting and logical than the film of the same name directed by Clooney.
There it was seen by representatives of the Nosenko family, which previously owned the painting. Soviet Rear Admiral Ivan Nosenko bought "Evening in Cairo" for his collection in the late 1940s. The painting was then passed down from generation to generation until, in 1997, the painting was stolen from the family's apartment in Moscow. When representatives of the Nosenko family saw a photograph of the painting “Evening in Cairo” on the Sotheby’s auction website, they announced that this particular painting had been stolen almost 20 years ago.
As a result, representatives auction house Sotheby's removed the painting from sale.
It turned out that Aivazovsky’s painting was put up for auction by its British owner, who bought the painting with all the accompanying documentation in Europe back in 2000. And I didn’t even suspect that it was stolen.
The painting "Evening in Cairo" was painted by Ivan Aivazovsky in 1870, when he attended the opening of the Suez Canal. Until the early 40s of the 20th century, it was in the collection of a certain collector Dedov, and then came to the then People's Commissar of Water Transport Ivan Nosenko.
Interestingly, more than 180 thousand works are registered in the database of Interpaol and the company The Art Loss Register, which are involved in the search for missing and stolen works of art. Among them are 572 (!!!) works by Pablo Picasso, 169 by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and 16 by Caravaggio. Here are just some of the most famous works world art related to thefts and robberies.
JAN VERMEER "CONCERT"
On March 18, 1990, the most notorious art theft in history occurred. From the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, robbers who entered the building under the guise of police officers took thirteen paintings, among which was “The Concert” by Johannes Vermeer, one of the most famous masters XVII century. The painting, created in 1664, depicts a couple of women and a man playing music in a dimly lit living room.
Back in 1892, Parisian art critic Théophile Thor sold the painting at auction at his estate to the famous philanthropist Isabella Gardner. This is how the “Concert” ended up in her personal museum, where it has been exhibited since 1903. “The Concert” is generally considered the most expensive lost painting in the world - its price is about 200 million dollars. A reward of $5 million is promised to anyone who returns the paintings in value and safety.
REMBRANDT "STORM ON THE SEA OF GALILE"
Along with the “Concert” by Johannes Vermeer, this painting also disappeared from the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston. The picture is noteworthy in that it was the only seascape, painted by Rembrandt. "The Storm" depicted Christ's miracle when he calmed the Sea of Galilee.
In March 2013, the FBI convened a special press conference where it was announced that the names of the perpetrators would be revealed. Criminal analysis showed that the paintings were stolen by organized organization, and not local singles, as previously thought.
However, the authorities said that the investigation into the case is still ongoing, so it is too early to name names. Since then, no new information has been received about the fate of the paintings.
JAN VAN EYCK "FAIR JUDGES".
This crime dates back to April 10, 1934 - at an exhibition held in the Cathedral of St. Bavo in Ghent, Belgium, Jan van Eyck’s painting “Fair Judges” was stolen. This painting itself was only part of the altar painting “Adoration of the Lamb,” created back in 1426-1432. Only one part of the 12 panels was stolen, and the robbers left a note. On French it was written that the painting was taken from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles.
For seven whole months, the Belgian government communicated through letters with a certain person who claimed that he had the painting and demanded a ransom. The thief was identified on November 25; he turned out to be a local eccentric politician, Arsene Godertier. Already dying, he declared that only he knew where the painting was, but he would take this secret with him to the grave. Since then, many versions have appeared about the whereabouts of the painting. And although many are inclined to believe that it was destroyed, it is still officially listed on the list of missing works of art.
MICHELANGELO CARAVAGGIO "CHRISTMAS WITH ST. FRANCIS AND ST. LAURENTIUM"
An almost three-meter-long painting by Caravaggio was stolen in 1969 from the Chapel of San Lorenzo in Palermo. The robbers treated the painting barbarously: in order to remove it from the gilded frame, they used a razor.
Picture not found.
CLAUDE MONET "CHARING CROSS BRIDGE, LONDON".
The painting, created in 1901, was located in Rotterdam and was stolen from the Kunsthal museum in October 2012.
One of the captured intruders claimed that he burned the Monet painting, along with other stolen paintings, in his mother's oven. This is how the thief tried to hide the evidence. And although some pigments were indeed found in the oven, there is no significant evidence of the words of the criminal and the destruction of the painting.
VINCENT VAN GOGH "LOVERS: THE POET'S GARDEN IV"
In the late 1930s, on Hitler's orders, many “depraved” works of art were confiscated from many private collections and museums. Among them was Van Gogh’s painting “Lovers: The Garden of the Poet IV.” In fact, Hitler wanted to create his own art collection, the largest in the world. Those same “depraved” works were intended for her. However, after the end of World War II, Van Gogh's masterpiece was never discovered. Therefore, only a black and white photograph of the painting has survived to this day.
VINCENT VAN GOGH "VIEW OF THE SEA NEAR SCHEVENINGEN"
This painting was stolen in 2002 from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam the old fashioned way. No one broke into the museum in broad daylight and threatened the terrified caretakers with weapons. The criminals entered the building at night by climbing up a ladder to the second floor and breaking a window. In 2004, two people were arrested on theft charges.
They were sentenced to 4.5 years in prison, but the painting was never found.
VINCENT VAN GOGH "EXIT OF THE PROCESSION FROM THE REFORMED CHURCH IN NUENEN."
This painting was also stolen in 2002 from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
PABLO PICASSO “DOVE WITH GREEN PEAS”.
This theft turned out to be quite strange. The incident occurred on May 20, 2010 in Paris, at approximately 7 o'clock in the morning. From the local Museum contemporary art Five paintings worth a total of 100 million euros were stolen. One of them was Picasso’s masterpiece “Dove with green peas", created in 1911. The thief was convicted in 2011. But he said that after the theft he fell into a panic and simply threw the paintings in the trash. The story is questionable, and the paintings are still considered missing.
PAUL GAUGIN "GIRL AT AN OPEN WINDOW"
The crime was committed in 2012 at the Kunsthal museum in Rotterdam, Holland. In just three minutes, they rushed through the museum, took seven paintings and left. The police who arrived at the scene just threw up their hands.
The approximate value of the stolen masterpieces is 18 million euros. But already in November one of the thieves was arrested, but the paintings remained unfound.
PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR "CONVERSATION WITH A GARDENER"
In 2000 there was a robbery National Museum in Stockholm: three men, one of whom threatened a security guard with a machine gun, grabbed several paintings, including a Renoir painting, and fled. "Conversation with the Gardener" was unexpectedly discovered during a drug bust in 2005.
HENRI MATISS "THE GARDEN OF LUXEMBOURG"
"The Garden of Luxembourg" by Henri Matisse was one of the paintings stolen from a museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On February 24, 2006, while the entire city was relaxing during the annual Carnival, four armed men robbed the museum and made off with the works of such famous artists, like Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet. The paintings have not yet been found.
EDWARD MUNK "SCREAM"
On August 22, 2004, masked gunmen entered the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway in broad daylight and stole two paintings by Edvard Munch, The Scream and Madonna. The masterpieces were found by police in 2006. "Scream" is the most famous picture artist and one of the most recognizable in the world. Its cost is $82 million.
EIGHT IMPERIAL FABERGE EGGS.
In the collection of Imperial Eggs, created by the jeweler Peter Carl Faberge, there were 52 eggs - the number of weeks in a year. In 1918, the collection was looted. Over time, some of them ended up in the hands of private collectors, others fell into various museums Worldwide. The fate of eight such products remained unknown.
LEONARDO DA VINCI "MONA LISA"
On August 21, 1911, this masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci was stolen from the Louvre - as it turned out a little later, the painting was stolen by the museum worker Peruggia, who simply removed the painting from the wall that day when the museum was closed and left the building, hiding the canvas under his clothes. For two years, photographs of the "Mona Lisa" were published in all newspapers in Europe, and this portrait became the most famous painting in the world. The portrait returned to the Louvre two years later.
The theft of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa
More than a hundred years ago, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, became the most famous painting in the world after it was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris on August 21, 1911.
Stolen by a certain Vincenzo Peruggia, who claimed that he fell in love with the Mona Lisa as soon as he looked into her eyes, the painting stood in his kitchen for two years. "La Gioconda", another name for this unique painting, became a worldwide sensation. The fame was beneficial in the search for the painting, as it could not be sold to any collector willing to fork out the cash.
Peruggia, a worker from Paris who once worked at the Louvre, simply removed the painting from the wall on a day when the museum was closed and walked out of the building, hiding the masterpiece under his clothes. Although the thief claimed that he stole the painting for patriotic reasons, the prospect of making a fortune from the sale of the painting was the true motive for the theft. The Italians, of course, never forgot about the origin of the painting, so they actively advocated for the canvas to be returned to Florence. This robbery became one of the most famous painting thefts in history.
The biggest robbery American Museum arts
On March 18, 1990, thieves dressed as police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and committed the largest robbery in US history, which remains unsolved. The thieves handcuffed the museum's night guards under the pretext that they had a warrant for their arrest.
Despite the fact that they were captured by security cameras and detected by motion sensors, the criminals stayed at the crime scene for 81 minutes and no one stopped them. According to some estimates, the value of one of the stolen paintings was $200 million. This is the Concert by John Vermeer, written in the second half of the 17th century.
Also among the 13 stolen masterpieces was Rembrandt’s “Storm on the Sea of Galilee.” The value of all the stolen paintings was estimated at $300 million, but some experts argued that the paintings could be worth much more. Many of the paintings had been cut from their frames, leading investigators to believe the perpetrators had little understanding of art.
Munch Museum robbery in Oslo
On August 22, 2004, masked gunmen entered the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway in broad daylight and stole two paintings by Edvard Munch, The Scream and Madonna. The masterpieces were found by police in 2006, and each of the paintings showed signs of damage, so it took another 2 years for their restoration before they returned to their place in the museum.
"The Scream" is one of the most recognizable paintings in the world
“The Scream” is the artist’s most famous painting and one of the most recognizable in the world. Its cost is $82 million, according to The Telegraph.
Museum robbery in Zurich
In February 2008, armed men broke into the Emil Bührle Foundation Collection museum in Zurich, Switzerland, and stole 4 masterpieces worth a total of $140 million. This is the largest art theft in Swiss history.
“Poppy field near Vetheuil” by Claude Monet
In 2008, works of art worth $140 million were stolen in Switzerland.
Claude Monet's Poppy Field near Vetheuil was one of the stolen paintings. The criminals also took away such masterpieces as “Louis Lepic and His Daughters” by Edgar Degas, “Blossoming Chestnut Branches” by Vincent Van Gogh and “The Boy in a Red Vest” by Paul Cezanne. The paintings of Van Gogh and Monet were quickly discovered by the police and returned to the museum, the rest disappeared without a trace.
Robbery of the Stedelek Museum in Amsterdam
On May 21, 1988, burglars broke the first floor window of the Stedelek Museum in Amsterdam, Holland, and stole 3 paintings worth a total of $52 million, according to the Associated Press. Today, the value of these paintings is $100 million, adjusted for inflation.
This robbery was the largest in Dutch history, but fortunately, the paintings were discovered 2 weeks later, when the criminals attempted to sell the loot.
One of the most famous and recognizable paintings by Van Gogh in the “Sunflowers” series ( second version 1889) was one of the stolen works.
Museum robbery in Rio de Janeiro
"The Garden of Luxembourg" by Henri Matisse was one of the paintings stolen from a museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On February 24, 2006, while the entire city was enjoying the annual Carnival, four armed men robbed the museum and made off with works by famous artists such as Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet.
The paintings have still not been found and their value has never been determined, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The theft of Leonardo da Viinci's Madonna of the Spindle
“Mona Lisa” is not the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci that robbers once had their eye on. In August 2003, criminals disguised as ordinary tourists visited Drumlanrig Castle in Scotland and took with them the painting “Madonna of the Spindle”, escaping in a Volkswagen Golf. The castle museum contains famous paintings such artists as da Vinci, Rembrandt and Hans Holbein, worth a total of about 650 million dollars.
Madonna of the Spindle is estimated to be worth approximately $65 million
Leonardo's painting, painted by the famous artist 500 years ago, is valued at $65 million. Luckily, she was discovered 4 years later in Glasgow. Four people were arrested and convicted for their involvement in the crime.
Robbery of the National Museum in Stockholm
On December 22, 2000, Pierre Auguste Renoir's "Young Parisian Woman" and "Conversation with a Gardener," as well as Rembrandt's self-portrait, disappeared from the National Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. Three men, one of whom threatened the guard with a machine gun, managed to escape with the famous paintings in just a few minutes.
According to BBC News reports, police suspect the robbers were assisted in committing the crime. While the crime was being committed in the museum, the police were distracted by a call about a car on fire, just as the museum's alarm went off.
“Conversation with the Gardener” was unexpectedly discovered during a raid on drug dealers, and two other paintings were found in 2005. According to the FBI, the total value of these three paintings is $30 million.
Robbery of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam
The robbery of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (Holland) in April 1991, which resulted in the theft of 20 paintings, can be called the fastest revealed kidnapping paintings in history. All the works were found 35 minutes later in the thieves' car, the New York Times reported.
In April 1991, approximately $500 million worth of paintings were stolen in Amsterdam.
The robbers committed the crime after hiding in the museum after it closed. At approximately 3 a.m., they came out of hiding, wearing stocking masks with cutouts for the eyes to hide their identities.
Among the stolen paintings was Van Gogh's "The Potato Eaters" from his early creativity. The total value of all stolen paintings is about $500 million. Unfortunately, almost all the paintings were damaged.
The cultural heritage of humanity is greatest works, which we worked on the best masters. Some people put their soul into paintings, while others created perfect curves in the form of sculptures. Today, the best works of art are kept under guard in museums, and their value at auctions reaches tens of millions of dollars.
But sometimes there is a temptation to steal a masterpiece. Criminals do not always demand a ransom for it or sell it to private collectors. It happens that the creations of geniuses simply disappear. The police, collectors, and bounty hunters are hunting for them, but they can never find them. Here is a list of the most famous stolen works of art that remain lost.
Stradivarius violin from Davidoff-Morini. For a musician, owning a Stradivarius violin is like owning the Holy Grail. This instrument is believed to have a high-quality and rich sound. Stradivari created an instrument that, even after centuries of use, did not lose its unique qualities. You just need to take good care of these unique violins. It is believed that only about 650 original ones have survived to this day. musical instruments from a medieval master. By the way, these are not only violins, but also violas, cellos, harps, guitars and mandolins. All museums consider it an honor to have Stradivarius's work at their disposal. There are his works not only in private collections, but in the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Stradivarius Museum in Cremona, Italy. And in October 1995, a unique creation by the master, dated 1727, was stolen from the apartment of violinist Erica Morini in New York. The approximate cost of the rarity was three million dollars. The owner herself died shortly after the robbery, unable to survive the bitterness of loss. True, she was already 91 years old at that time. And that theft is still on the FBI's list of the top ten art crimes. Unique violin she is listed as lost and no one knows where she is now.
Von Gogh's painting "View of the sea near Scheveningen". On December 7, at approximately 8 a.m., a pair of unknown robbers climbed onto the roof of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. From there the thieves were able to get inside the premises. The attackers took only two of the variety of paintings: “View of the sea near Scheveningen” and “The congregation leaves the reformist church in Newnen.” Van Gogh painted both works between 1882 and 1884. It is believed that at this time the artist created his best masterpieces. And the total cost of the paintings is about 30 million dollars. The museum's official website states that Van Gogh painted this picture while at the beach resort of Scheveningen, near The Hague. The poor artist had to literally fight the weather - there was a strong gusty wind that lifted grains of sand into the air and made them stick to the paint. And although Van Gogh removed the sand from the paint, its remains can still be found in some layers on the canvas. In 2004, two people were arrested on theft charges. They were sentenced to 4.5 years in prison, but the paintings were never found. The museum announced a reward of 100 thousand euros to those who provide some information about the whereabouts of the art objects.
Pablo Picasso's painting "Dove with Green Peas". This theft turned out to be quite strange. The incident occurred on May 20, 2010 in Paris, at approximately 7 o'clock in the morning. Five paintings worth a total of 100 million euros were stolen from the local Museum of Modern Art. One of them was Picasso’s masterpiece “Dove with Green Peas,” created in 1911. To get into the museum, the thief simply broke the window and broke the lock. The criminal turned out to be so dexterous that he managed not to cut out the paintings with a knife, but to quickly and carefully pull them out of the frames. The surveillance camera showed that there was only one thief at work, and not a whole gang. The police found someone who could be him. The thief was convicted in 2011. But he said that after the theft he fell into a panic and simply threw the paintings in the trash. The story is questionable, and the paintings are still considered missing.
Painting by Paul Gauguin “Girl at an open window”. This masterpiece by Gauguin was created by him in 1888, and it was stolen relatively recently - in October 2012. The crime was committed at the Kunsthal Museum in Rotterdam, Holland. Along with Gauguin's painting, six more paintings like this disappeared famous artists, like Picasso, Monet, Matisse and Lucian Freud. The thieves entered the museum at approximately 3 am. In just three minutes, they rushed through the museum, took seven paintings and left. The police who arrived at the scene just threw up their hands. The approximate value of the stolen masterpieces is 18 million euros. But already in November the first suspect, Radu Dogaru, was arrested. He was sentenced to seven years in prison. On December 6, the second attacker, Adrian Prokop, was also arrested in Berlin. But the paintings remained unfound.
Painting by Johannes Vermeer "The Concert". One of the most famous masters of the 17th century is the Dutchman Jan Vermeer. Today, almost all of his paintings are housed in museums or the Royal Collection in London. One of Vermeer's most famous paintings was the Concert, created by him in 1664. The painting depicts a couple of women and a man playing music in a dimly lit living room. Back in 1892, Parisian art critic Théophile Thor sold the painting at auction at his estate to the famous philanthropist Isabella Gardner. This is how the “Concert” ended up in her personal museum, where it has been exhibited since 1903. And on March 18, 1990, a couple of thieves dressed in Boston police uniforms showed up at the museum, allegedly on call. Inside the museum, thieves stole 13 paintings, including Vermeer's masterpiece, as well as paintings by Flinck, Degas and Rembrandt. These creations remained unfound, and “The Concert” is generally considered the most expensive lost painting in the world - its price is about 200 million dollars.
Painting by Jan van Eyck “Fair Judges”. This crime dates back to April 10, 1934. Then, at an exhibition held in the Cathedral of St. Bavo in Ghent, Belgium, Jan van Eyck’s painting “Fair Judges” was stolen. This painting itself was only part of the altar painting “Adoration of the Lamb,” created back in 1426-1432. Only one part of the 12 panels was stolen, and the robbers left a note. It was written in French that the painting had been taken from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. And then an interesting correspondence began. For seven whole months, the Belgian government communicated through letters with a certain person who claimed that he had the painting and demanded a ransom. The thief was identified on November 25; he turned out to be a local eccentric politician, Arsene Godertier. Already dying, he declared that only he knew where the painting was, but he would take this secret with him to the grave. Since then, many versions have appeared about the whereabouts of the painting. And although many are inclined to believe that it was destroyed, it is still officially listed on the list of missing works of art.
Rembrandt's painting "Storm on the Sea of Galilee". Along with the “Concert” by Johannes Vermeer, this painting also disappeared from the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston. The painting is notable because it was the only seascape painted by Rembrandt. "The Storm" depicted Christ's miracle when he calmed the Sea of Galilee. These events were described in the Gospel of Mark. The robbery itself became the largest in the art world, committed in America. In March 2013, the FBI convened a special press conference where it was announced that the names of the perpetrators would be revealed. A criminal analysis showed that the paintings were stolen by an entire organized organization, and not by local individuals, as previously thought. However, the authorities said that the investigation into the case is still ongoing, so it is too early to name names. Since then, no new information has been received about the fate of the paintings. And although more than 23 years have passed since the crime, the investigation is still ongoing. Authorities are offering a $5 million reward for information about the whereabouts of the paintings.
Painting by Claude Monet “Charing Cross Bridge, London”. Between 1899 and 1904 famous impressionist Claude Monet painted a whole series of paintings dedicated to London's Charing Cross Bridge. They show the object in different time day, for which the artist used a wide color palette. The painting, created in 1901, was located in Rotterdam and was stolen from the Kunsthal museum in October 2012. One of the captured intruders claimed that he burned the Monet painting, along with other stolen paintings, in his mother's oven. This is how the thief tried to hide the evidence. And although some pigments were indeed found in the oven, there is no significant evidence of the words of the criminal and the destruction of the painting. Therefore, art historians still hope to find and return Monet's masterpiece.
Eight Imperial Faberge Eggs. Today, the Russian tsars are often remembered in connection with the art objects that belonged to them. In particular, the collection of Imperial Faberge Eggs, created by him for Alexandra III and Nicholas II, are highly valued. The representative of the House, Peter Carl Gustavovich Faberge, made the eggs real masterpieces of art, decorating them precious stones. The jeweler carried out this work between 1885 and 1917. In total, the collection included 52 imperial eggs known to experts, along with which were exquisite jewelry, exquisite metal parts and complex gears and screws for winding mechanisms. And in 1918, the new Bolshevik government allowed the looting of the House of Faberge and the royal palace in St. Petersburg. The eggs were confiscated and sent to the Kremlin. Over time, some of them ended up in the hands of private collectors, others ended up in various museums around the world. The fate of eight such products has remained unknown since 1918; they were simply stolen. Today, each Fabergé egg is valued at approximately a million dollars. Rumors connected the lost rarities with Europe, the States, and even South America.
Vincent van Gogh's painting "Lovers: The Poet's Garden IV". On October 21, 1888, the artist wrote a letter to his brother Theo about his last job. In a vague sketch, the artist depicted a row of green cypress trees against a pinkish sky, while the Moon was drawn as a pale lemon crescent. In the foreground of the canvas are blurry soil, sand and a few thistles. The painting also depicts a pair of lovers - a pale blue man in a yellow hat and a woman in a black skirt and pink bodice. Also in 1888, the painting was completed. But in the late 1930s, on Hitler’s orders, many “depraved” works of art were confiscated from many private collections and museums. Among them was Van Gogh’s painting “Lovers: The Garden of the Poet IV.” In fact, Hitler wanted to create his own art collection, the largest in the world. Those same “depraved” works were intended for her. The Americans created a special group of military men, the “Monuments Men,” which was designed to find and preserve in war-torn Europe cultural values. However, after the end of World War II, Van Gogh's masterpiece was never discovered.
