Famous Art Thefts: The Amber Room

The Nazis took possession of many works of art as they marched across Europe during World War II.   It's estimated they looted twenty percent of the world's art.

Hitler had grand plans to fill his Fuhrer's Museum with stolen art.

One of the stolen treasures was the contents of the Amber Room from Catherine's Palace near Saint Petersburg.  The Germans dismantled the room and took it.

Unfortunately, the contents were never returned.  Many think the amber room was destroyed by bombs, lost in a sunken submarine or still hidden away in some forgotten place.  

You can find an article regarding the Amber Room at Smithsonian Online.

Famous Art Thefts: The Last Judgment

Historians actually believe the very first art theft occurred when The Last Judgment by Hans Memling in 1473 was taken….not for the last but for the first time.

The Last Judgment is actually a triptych painting which means the painting is actually in three sections hinged together.

The painting was stolen by pirates.   Yes, real pirates.  It was on a ship headed for Florence  when the pirates took the ship, and they ended up with the painting.

The pirates took Memling’s work to a cathedral in Gdansk, Poland and believe it or not…..it’s still there – in the National Museum.

It’s a little surprising anyone would want to keep it.   The painting IS a little scary, isn’t it?

The Museum’s website states Angelo Tani, head of the Bruges branch of Medici’s bank commissioned the painting in 1465 for a church in Florence… Badia Fiesolana, but it never hung there since the painting was taken by pirates and eventually hung in St. Mary’s Church.

Later the painting was connected with the name van Eyck and over the centuries other painters from the Netherlands were thought to have painted The Last Judgement.   It wasn’t finally attributed to Memling until 1843.

From the 1700s forward the painting was caught up in various wars.  During the Northern War (1716-1717) Russian tsar Peter the Great demanded the painting as part of the reparations imposed on Gdansk.   In 1807, Napoleon’s army occupied Gdansk and took the painting to Paris where it was incorrectly identified it as a van Eyck.  

After Napoleon’s fall the Prussians took the painting to Berlin before it was returned to Gdansk where it eventually wound up in St. Reynaud’s Chapel.

Fortunately, The Last Judgment survived World War II though many works of art did not.   Initially the painting was found by the Soviet Army.  They took the painting to Lenningrad’s Hermitage as a war trophy.  On September 22, 1956 The Last Judgment was returned to Gdansk together with other artwork from the Gdansk Musem.

Famous Art Thefts: Mona Lisa

Vicenzo Peruggia, a former Louve employee actually walked out of the museum with the Mona Lisa under his clothes on August 21, 1911. 

How he removed the painting from its frame with no notice is beyond me. 

Officials questioned all sorts of people including Guillaume Apollinaire, a French poet who had at once time called for the Louvre to be “burnt down.”   He was arrested and then had the audacity to implicate his friend Pablo Picasso…….yes, that one.

Picasso was questioned but allowed to go.

Peruggia was fingered for the crime when he contacted a prominent art dealer in Florence in December, 1913 claiming he had a famous painting for sale. 

He had stolen the Mona Lisa because he wanted the painting returned to Itay – its rightful place in his opinion.

Once retrieved from Peruggia, the painting went on a whirlwind tour of Italy before being returned to the Louvre. 

Many of Peruggia’s Italian countrymen hailed him as a hero.   Back in France he was sentenced to a jail term of six months.