What to Read about Crimes in Art

Short Review of ‘Art Heist’ by Susie Hodge

I am happy to see you all! Finally, I am here and have finished my Louvre accident-inspired reading. Therefore, if you enjoy reading, especially about art or crime, my new small blog post is for you. Oh, if you prefer watching, I can recommend the new series ‘Art Detectives.’

Honestly, I noticed the book ‘Art Heist’’ long before the last Louvre robbery, but I still needed to finish my other art-themed bookish findings. I collected a wide range of them, and they look so strange together that they may even be interesting to someone.

After the robbery, I obviously had to buy this book, and now I will share my review of what you can find inside it. 

The work is divided into two sections, Lost and Found, and describes the most impressive art heists of the XX-XXI centuries. While reading some chapters, it sounded like a plot from a novel or a movie; the human brain works in really inexplicable ways sometimes.

The most shocking info from ‘Art Heist.’ 

• During the 12 years of the Nazi regime, about 650,000 artworks across Europe (20% of the entire continent’s art treasures) were seized, sold, entered private collections of officers, selected for Hitler’s planned art museum, or destroyed as degenerate art (some authors of ‘degenerate art’ were Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Paul Gaugin, and more). More than 30,000 art objects remain unfound.

• Some of the heists are puzzling and even mysterious in nature. Therefore, the second chapter of the book is devoted to the story of several heists of the Ghent Altarpiece, created by Hubert and Jan van Eyck. The last incident occurred in 1934, when one of the twelve panels, called ‘The Just Judges’, was stolen from the cathedral. A self-proclaimed thief, Arsene Goedertier, while dying because of a heart attack, left the note: ‘It rests in place, where neither I nor anybody else can take it away without arousing the attention of the public.’ Even Joseph Goebbels tried to find it, but the panel remains missing to this day. 

• One of the earliest works of Michelangelo Buonarotti, the ‘Mask of the Faun,’ was also stolen by the Nazis. This fact may seem mundane, but the story of its creation is exciting. You can find it along with other stories in the book by Giorgio Vasari, ‘The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects.’ According to Vasari, Michelangelo created this mask at the age of 15. It was based on an antique sculpture, but the genius added his individual vision. When Lorenzo de Medici saw the mask, he guessed that it was hard to believe that such an old faun would have so many teeth. In response, Michelangelo immediately knocked out a tooth from the faun’s jaw. As a result, he was invited to the Medici private school and sculpture garden.

• Thieves not only steal paintings but also heavy objects while remaining unseen. Thus, someone stole the 2-tonne, 3.3x2.4 m statue, ‘A Reclining Figure’ by Henry Moore, from the Henry Moore Foundation sculpture park in Hertfordshire. This bronze statue is worth over £3 million, but according to one theory, it was stolen and sold for scrap. The same happened with the 2.37x2.34 m bronze sculpture ‘Divided Circle’ by Barbara Hepworth. 

• Frankly, I am a bit tired of listing all the stories, so I would like to finish with something funny or positive. Here we go: in 2003, somebody stole three paintings by Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul Gauguin, estimated at £6.4 million, from the Whitworth Art Gallery at the University of Manchester. A few days later, the police received an anonymous call about the robbery. All the paintings were hidden in a public toilet near the gallery. Additionally, there was a small comment: ‘We did not intend to steal these paintings, just to highlight the woeful security.’ 

I hope you liked these short notes or found them compelling enough to read this book on your own and discover more intriguing stories about different art heists. 

Oh, yes, ‘Mona Lisa’ and ‘Scream’ in my photo were also stolen, but fortunately, they were found. It is believed that this incident may have contributed to their current popularity.