stolen art

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Family's Dogged Search for a Monet Taken by Nazis Pays Off

Adalbert Parlagi's descendants were given the painting on Wednesday

(Newser) - On the eve of World War II, Nazis in Austria seized a pastel by renowned impressionist artist Claude Monet, selling it off and sparking a family's decades-long search that culminated Wednesday in New Orleans. At an FBI field office, agents lifted a blue veil covering the Monet pastel and...

Painting Stolen by the Mob Returned Five Decades Later

'This piece of art, what a history it's had,' says FBI agent

(Newser) - An 18th-century British painting stolen by mobsters in 1969 has been returned more than a half-century later to the family that bought the painting for $7,500 during the Great Depression, the FBI's Salt Lake City field office announced Friday. The 40-inch-by-50-inch John Opie painting—titled "The Schoolmistress"...

16 Major Pieces at Met Will Return to Rightful Owners

They're going back to Cambodia and Thailand

(Newser) - New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art announced Friday that it will return 16 major artworks connected to a trafficker to Cambodia and Thailand. The Cambodian government maintains that the Met has dozens of items that have been taken since the 1970s and has pressured the museum to return them,...

NY Prosecutor Seizes Art Believed Stolen in Holocaust

Family of inmate killed at Dachau says he was forced to give up ownership

(Newser) - Three artworks thought to have been stolen during the Holocaust from a Jewish art collector and entertainer have been seized from museums in three states by New York law enforcement authorities. The artworks by Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele were all previously owned by Fritz Grünbaum, a cabaret performer and...

Prosecutors List Artwork, Memorabilia Lost to Theft Ring

Nine are charged in crimes over more than 20 years

(Newser) - Federal authorities have announced charges against a ring of nine people for thefts of millions of dollars' worth of paintings, sports memorabilia, and other valuables, including an Andy Warhol silkscreen, a Jackson Pollock painting, and nine World Series rings belonging to the late Yankees Hall of Famer Yogi Berra. The...

French City Thinks Madonna Has Painting Last Seen in 1918

Amiens is hoping the singer will lend it the work by Jérôme-Martin Langlois

(Newser) - Amiens, France, is not a stop on Madonna's newly announced world tour , but it's a city that has a particular interest in the singer. That's because, as the mayor of Amiens explains, the city believes Madonna has in her possession a 19th-century painting that once hung in...

Art World's 'Indiana Jones' Recovers Relic in Surprising Way

Anonymous person gave to Arthur Brand stolen vials said to hold blood of Christ

(Newser) - Thieves were inconspicuously locked inside a French church on the evening of June 1. According to police, they burst out the next morning with one of the most cherished Christian relics: two lead vials containing pieces of linen said to be covered in the blood of Jesus Christ—collected in...

New Tool in Hunt for Looted Art: a Deck of Cards

Foundation creates it to highlight missing pieces plundered by the Nazis

(Newser) - A group dedicated to finishing the work of World War II's Monuments Men is betting on a deck of playing cards—and reward money—to help find missing works of art taken by the Nazis. Inspired by the US military's history of creating playing cards related to missions,...

Seized by the Nazis, It Could Now Break Auction Records

Meissen porcelain collection goes up for auction next month

(Newser) - A collection of Meissen porcelain once seized by Nazis for Adolf Hitler himself is going up for auction next month. The Jewish owners of the 18th-century pieces, German lawyer Franz Oppenheimer and his Austrian wife Margarethe, fled Germany for Austria in 1936, then escaped to Budapest a little over a...

Stolen Picasso Painting With Huge Sentimental Value Found

Artist intended for the Greek people to have it in recognition of their Nazi resistance

(Newser) - A Picasso painting that was stolen in January 2012 and has particular meaning to the Greek people has been recovered. The BBC reports the artist himself gave "Head of a Woman" to Greece in 1949 in honor of the country's resistance to the Nazis. Culture Minister Lina Mendoni...

Off-Duty Cops Antiquing in Brussels Make Quite a Find

Roman statue worth $120K had been stolen from Italy nearly a decade ago

(Newser) - Two Italian police officers on assignment in Belgium were exploring some of Brussels' antique shops after work when they discovered a $120,000 Roman statue, stolen from Italy nearly a decade ago. The statue of a headless Roman in a draped toga struck the men as suspicious. As members of...

Months Later, Arrest in Brazen Pandemic Art Heists

Man accused of stealing two paintings from two different museums in the Netherlands

(Newser) - More than a year after a Van Gogh was stolen from a shuttered Dutch museum early in the COVID-19 pandemic, an arrest has been made in that case—as well as another art heist that also took place in the Netherlands, at a different museum, months later. A 58-year-old Dutch...

Stolen Copy of World's Most Expensive Painting Is Found
Stolen Copy of World's Most
Expensive Painting Is Found
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Jan 23, 2021 7:00 AM CST

Stolen Copy of World's Most Expensive Painting Is Found

Italian museum didn't realize 'Salvator Mundi' copy was missing

(Newser) - A 500-year-old copy of the world's most expensive painting has been returned to an Italian museum, whose staff didn't even realize it was stolen. During a search of an apartment in Naples, police came upon the copy of Salvator Mundi , a Leonardo da Vinci original depicting Jesus Christ...

'Proof of Life' Photos of Stolen Van Gogh Emerge

Art detective says thief could be looking for a buyer

(Newser) - The Vincent van Gogh painting stolen from a Dutch museum in March has turned up—in a pair of photographs . The "proof of life" photos show the front and back of the small painting, Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring, next to a copy of the New York Times'...

18 Months After Theft, Banksy Piece Found in Attic

Authorities recover mural dedicated to Bataclan victims

(Newser) - Italian authorities on Thursday unveiled a stolen artwork by the British artist Banksy that was painted as a tribute to the victims of the 2015 terror attacks at the Bataclan music hall in Paris. The L'Aquila prosecutors' office said the work was recovered Wednesday during a search of a...

Researcher: Museum Won't Give Up Art Nazis Plundered

Sibylle Ehringhaus says Germany's Georg Schaefer Museum used her as a 'fig leaf' for 'appearances'

(Newser) - Heirs of Jewish collectors who say their work was stolen by the Nazis have claimed about 20 pieces of art housed in the Georg Schaefer Museum in Schweinfurt, Germany, and there had been a provenance researcher there whose job was to verify those claims. But Sibylle Ehringhaus chose not to...

Person Finds 1.2K Stolen Works of Art in Relative's Storage Unit

Works by Benjamin Creme recovered in Los Angeles

(Newser) - This time detectives didn't have to track down the stolen art, someone led them to it. Los Angeles police said Tuesday they recovered $800,000 worth of prints by Scottish abstract expressionist Benjamin Creme after a caller told them they were in the person's home in the Los...

Egypt's Outrage Couldn't Stop This $6M Sale

Christie's holds auction of 3,000-year-old King Tut bust despite Egypt's claims it was stolen

(Newser) - "Egyptian history is not for sale" is what signs carried by protesters read outside of Christie's in London. But apparently it was, as a controversial auction of a King Tut bust was carried out Thursday, fetching nearly $6 million, Reuters reports. At issue regarding the 3,000-year-old, 11-inch-high...

Another Big Find for the 'Indiana Jones of the Art World'

Arthur Brand tracked down Picasso's 'Buste de Femme (Dora Maar)'

(Newser) - It sounds like the plot of a Hollywood movie, so it's only fitting the mystery was solved by a man who's been given a Hollywood-like nickname: "the Indiana Jones of the art world." That would be Arthur Brand, the man who managed to track down a...

$100M Stolen Painting Hung in Couple's Bedroom for Years

But did Jerry and Rita Alter brazenly steal it from the University of Arizona Museum?

(Newser) - Jerry and Rita Alter were worldly, fascinating, and kept a stolen Willem de Kooning painting in their bedroom—but did they actually steal it? A few clues may tell the tale. The Alters had moved from New York City to rural New Mexico in their 50s when, the day after...

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