A Day That Will Live in Infamy Wall Art
For art history, Baronial 21 and 22 are the dates that will live in infamy, non Dec vii (all apologies to FDR). In some foreign nexus of negative karma stretching over well-nigh a century, three of the greatest fine art heists of all fourth dimension took place on these dates: the theft of Leonardo da Vinci'southward Mona Lisa (shown above) from the Louvre in Paris, France, on August 21, 1911; the theft of Francisco Goya'south Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London, England, on August 21, 1961; and the theft of Edvard Munch'due south The Scream (shown above) and Madonna from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, on August 22, 2004. Each story ends happily with the works returned prophylactic and audio, but the stories behind each even so dement and astonish.
In many means, the stealing of theMona Lisa made it the icon we know today. Donald Sassoon'sBecoming Mona Lisa wonderfully examines just how famousMona became afterwards she was missing. On August 21, 1911, a commercial painter named Vincenzo Peruggia, who had worked in the Louvre in 1908, walked into the Louvre and waved to the guards, who still remembered him and who assumed that he was there to work, since it was the day the museum was closed to the public. Peruggia strolled up to theMona Lisa, pulled it from the wall, removed it from its frame in a nearby stairwell, and sauntered out of the Louvre with Da Vinci's masterpiece beneath his painter's clothing. An entire twenty-four hours passed earlier anyone noticed the missing painting (epitome beneath). The Louvre shut downwardly for a week after it was discovered. Theophile Homolle, the Louvre'due south director, was forced to resign. Without whatever clues, police followed every thin lead, arresting fifty-fifty poet Guillaume Apollinaire momentarily every bit a suspect. A young Castilian painter who had been frequenting the Louvre was called in for questioning — a pre-famous Pablo Picasso. In November 1913, Peruggia contacted an Italian art dealer, hoping to sell the painting to the Uffizi. The dealer contacted the police and Peruggia was apprehended.
After 2 years of squirreling the masterpiece beneath his bed, Peruggia claimed that he merely stole the Mona back for Italy, since it had been "stolen" by Napoleon and the French. (In reality, King Francois I of France purchased the Mona Lisa from Da Vinci in 1516.) In The Missing Piece: Mona Lisa, Her Thief, the True Story (which I reviewed here), filmmaker Joe Medeiros tries to solve the puzzle of Peruggia'southward true motivation, considering rampant patriotism, simple greed, and fifty-fifty mental instability caused past workplace exposure to atomic number 82 paint. What isn't a mystery is how the Mona Lisa's theft transformed it from a peachy painting to the greatest painting in the world. France allowed the Mona Lisa to bout Italia for 2 years earlier she returned to the Louvre, her reputation magnified immensely by the worldwide press surrounding the sensational robbery and the astonishing recovery.
In 1961, the British government purchased Goya's The Duke of Wellington for the National Gallery to keep it on British soil and out of the hands of an American collector. To pay for theDuke, the British government increased the taxation levied on all persons owning a television. Non liking higher taxes (or anyone trying to take away his tv programs), 61-year-old pensioner Kempton Bunton sprang into action. Climbing through an open bath window of the National Gallery i morning, Bunton grabbed the painting and nimbly scampered back through with Goya's portrait of the Hero of Waterloo. Reuters before long received a alphabetic character offer the return of the painting in commutation for a decrease in the television tax, which the government refused. Police were baffled. The Knuckles of Wellington "appeared" ever so briefly in the 1962 James Bond moving picture Dr. No hanging on wall of the title supervillain's lair and drawing a double-take from the superspy. 4 years later, the press received another alphabetic character saying where the painting could be recovered, safe and audio. Bunton surrendered voluntarily half dozen months later and received but iii months of prison time. The moral: NEVER get between an old man and his television!
Whatsoever humour or eccentricity in art thievery ends with the theft of Munch's Scream and Madonna(shown above) on August 22, 2004. Masked and armed thieves rushed into Oslo'due south Munch Museum in wide daylight, threatened patrons and guards at gunpoint, and pulled the paintings from the walls with ease, thanks to the outdated-to-well-nigh-nonexistent security systems. (Thieves stole a different version of The Scream from the National Gallery, Oslo, 10 years before, on February 12, 1994, and left behind a note saying, "Thanks for the poor security." It was recovered months later.) Justifiably, the museum guards placed the safety of the museumgoers over that of the art itself, something that some afterwards critics (amazingly) viewed every bit misplaced priorities. Afterwards the theft, the museum close down for 10 months to improve their overall security. Two years passed before the paintings were recovered, safe and sound. The thieves received sentences of eight, seven, and four years of prison house time, depending on their level of involvement. The shocking violence of the Munch robbery made art lovers long for the good old days of misguided nationalists and disgruntled old men.
[Top Prototype:Edvard Munch's The Scream (1893; detail shown). Paradigm source:Wikiart. Image source for all other images: Wikiart.]
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Source: https://bigthink.com/culture-religion/days-of-infamy-august-21-and-22-and-major-art-heists/
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