Willem de Kooning’s “Woman–Ochre” was missing for over 30 years. Now recovered, it shows signs of mishandling and amateur restoration that are difficult to fix.
Art Theft
Posted inIn Brief
Court Rules That Picasso’s Electrician Stole 271 of the Artist’s Works
Pierre and Danielle Le Guennec’s Picasso stockpile was estimated to be worth €70 million (~$77.5 million).
Posted inIn Brief
1,200 Stolen Paintings Were Discovered in a Los Angeles Storage Locker
Of a total 2,300 missing paintings by Scottish painter Benjamin Creme, 1,200 have been recovered. They are valued at around $777,000.
Posted inIn Brief
Oh, Crap! Thieves Swipe Solid Gold Toilet Worth $6M
Maurizio Cattelan’s golden throne was stolen from the Blenheim Art Foundation.
Posted inFilm
Short on Substance, The Goldfinch Falters on Screen
The adaptation of Donna Tartt’s bestseller sacrifices its nuances to fit in all of its plot points.
Posted inIn Brief
New Yorker Arrested and Charged for Stealing a $16,000 Sculpture from a Manhattan Gallery
Surveillance camera footage shows the suspect allegedly walking off with the sculpture in broad daylight.
Posted inIn Brief
World’s Most Successful Art Thief Told His Secrets in a GQ Interview
Unmotivated by profit, Stéphane Breitwieser stole over a billion dollars worth of art and artifacts to fill his obsessive treasure trove, which he stored away in an attic.
Posted inIn Brief
Woman Steals $17,500 Rock from Yoko Ono Installation
The perpetrator, who was caught on camera, took the rock from a participatory installation called “Stone Piece” at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto.
Posted inNews
314 Rare Books Stolen from Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Library
There are generally two types of rare book thieves — ones that steal for money and book hoarders.
Posted inIn Brief
Artist Sean Scully’s Former Assistant Allegedly Stole Work to Sell at Auction
Arturo Rucci, a former assistant to Scully, has been arrested under suspicion of stealing a triptych from the artist’s studio and consigning it for auction at Bonhams.
Posted inIn Brief
Vigilantes Posing as City Workers Steal Street Art in Paris
Some 15 tile pieces by the French street artist Invader have been pried off city’s walls by two men claiming to be municipal workers.
Posted inIn Brief
Florida Art Thief Drives Stolen Car 1,000 Miles to Ask Obama for Pardon
Miami resident and confessed art thief Marcus Sanford Patmon was arrested on Wednesday after driving a stolen car to Arlington, Virginia, where “he was looking to be pardoned by the Obama administration before the Trump administration came in,” according to an Arlington Police Department spokesperson.