Art Loss Register: Recent and Unresolved Thefts

By Fox Rothschild LLP on January 6, 2010

In the last entry, we provided some brief background on the Art Loss Register (ALR), a service which provides, among other things, information on recent and unresolved art thefts in the hope of generating leads on the thefts. By way of example, below are three thefts listed in the ALR’s January 6, 2010 email newsletter:

Edgar Degas Pastel Stolen from French Museum
A pastel by Edgar Degas was stolen from the Cantini Museum in Marseilles, France, on the night of December 30, 2009. The artwork had been removed from the wall, with no visible sign of break-in at the museum, leading police to suggest that the theft may have been an inside job. The pastel was on loan from the Musee d’Orsay, and is valued at over $1.14m.

From the Archives
Tenth Anniversary of Brash Cezanne Theft

Ten years ago, while people all around the world were ringing in the new millennium on New Year’s Eve, a Cezanne masterpiece was stolen from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England. The painting remains one of the Art Loss Register’s most sought works. Thieves gained access to the museum through glass skylights, using rope ladders to climb out with the canvas. At the time of the theft, the painting was valued at $5m. Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum is the world’s oldest public museum, first opening its doors in 1683. The landscape was the only painting by Cezanne in the museum’s collection.

Albert Gleizes Painting Stolen in Deal Gone Sour
On Monday, November 30, 2009, ten paintings including a $1.4m work by Albert Gleizes were stolen at gunpoint in Miami. The sale of the works was in progress when the proposed buyer of the pictures pulled a gun on the seller, escaping with both the cash and the artworks. Police successfully arrested the thief, but the paintings remain missing. Read the full story here.