June 19, 2001
CONTENTS:
- Violent Rubens art heist in Gent, Belgium
- Chagall painting snatched from museum in New York
The following message was received from a curator of the Gent, Belgium, Museum of Fine
Arts. The painting was stolen by armed robbers who di not hesitate to use violence against the
museum guards.
T.C.
From: De Smet Johan Johan.DeSmet@Gent.be
Subject: Rubens - Calydonean Boar Hunt
(Image of stolen painting is available at http://www.museum-security.org/images/rubens.jpg )
Dear Sir, Dear Madam,
We would like to inform you that the following painting has been stolen from the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent on Wednesday 13th June 2001 around 4 p.m:
After Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen 1577 - Antwerp 1640)
The Calydonian Boar Hunt
Oil on panel, 28 x 52,5 cm
Gent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, inv. 1899-F
Copy after the original Oil Sketch by P.P. Rubens in the collection of Sir
Francis Cook (oil on panel, 24,7 x 51,4 cm).
Pendant of The Death of Adonis (oil on panel, 34,6 x 52,4) at The Art Museum of Princeton University, inv. 30-458. Provenance:
Auction collection John Humble, Christie's London, 11 April 1812, n° 14; auction collection Sir William Curtis, Christie's London, 19 June 1847, n° 14 to Vernon Smith; bought by the Vrienden van het Museum voor Schone Kunsten (Friends of the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent) at P. & D. Colnaghi Gallery, London, 1899 Recent bibliography:
Arnout BALIS, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard. Part XVIII Landscape and Hunting Scenes. II. Hunting Scenes, Oxford - New York, Harvey Miller Publishers - Oxford University Press, 1986, pp. 237-238.
Sincerely Yours,
Johan De Smet
Curator Museum of Fine Arts Ghent
Museum voor Schone Kunsten
p.a. Stadhuis
Botermarkt 1
B-9000 Gent
Belgium
tel.: 00-32-(0)9-240 07 41
fax: 00-32-(0)9-221 60 15
email: johan.desmet@gent.be
(Image of stolen painting is available at http://www.museum-security.org/images/rubens.jpg )
CHAGALL PAINTING SNATCHED
By LARRY CELONA and JAMES CLENCH
June 9, 2001 -- A rare Chagall oil painting was stolen from Manhattan's Jewish Museum, officials said yesterday. Museum officials confirmed that the painting by Marc Chagall, one of the leading artists of the 20th century, was reported stolen yesterday morning, but refused to elaborate. A police source said the painting, worth $1 million, is titled "Study for ‘Over Vitebsk.' " The source also said a janitor noticed some sawdust on the floor near where the painting had hung around 8 a.m. yesterday, but didn't report it because he wasn't aware the painting was missing. It wasn't until about 11 a.m. that horrified museum officials realized the masterpiece had vanished. Museum officials reported that they last saw the painting Thursday at 5:45 p.m., cops said.
A party was held in the museum that evening from 7 to 9 p.m., but it wasn't known if anyone saw the painting then.
Police said there was no sign of forced entry.
The 8-by-10 oil pictures a man with a sack floating past rooftops, a reference to a door-to- door beggar and to Eastern Europe's Jewish population, which has been regularly forced to move. "Study for ‘Over Vitebsk'" was on loan from a private collector in St. Petersburg, Russia. The painting was part of a new exhibit called "Marc Chagall: Early Works From Russian Collections" which opened April 28 and runs through Oct. 14. Other works in the exhibit include "Lovers in Blue", an oil on paper; "My Father", a watercolor; and "The Promenade" and "Jew in Bright Red", both oils on cardboard. Chagall, a Russian-born French painter who died in 1985 at the age of 98, is remembered for his paintings of Russian-Jewish village scenes. He's known in New York for the huge twin murals in the lobby of the Metropolitan Opera House. Chagall's 12 stained-glass windows at Jerusalem's Hadassah-Hebrew University Hospital synagogue are among his most celebrated works.
http://www.nypost.com/news/