I was surprised to find out that illegal art trafficking is, in fact, the fourth largest economic crime worldwide (202). Shamefully, many people kept to the so-called “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy until only much later people and countries began to come clean and return unjustly acquired works to their rightful owner or their heirs (202). Another form of art theft is wartime looting, for which Napoleon and Hitler are notorious and to which the theft of the most famous painting in the world is linked.
In 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre by a man named Vincenzo Peruggia who had worked on the glass case that was placed over the painting to protect it (NPR). The painting remained hidden for more than two years until Peruggia tried to sell it to an art dealer in Florence, who turned him over to the police (Lacayo). When arrested, Peruggia claimed that he took the painting from the Louvre only to “repatriate” it to Italy and “exact revenge for Napoleon's massive theft of artworks all across Europe” (Lacayo). Contrary to his belief that the Mona Lisa was looted by Napoleon, the truth is that, although Leonardo Da Vinci started the painting in Florence, the artist himself brought the painting with him to France when he became a court painter to Francois I (Lacayo).
This theft was apparently a “mark of shame” for France because the Louvre only discovered that the painting was missing a day after the theft and because it failed to retrieve the painting for the next two years during which it remained in France (NPR).
The impact of the theft seems to have been enormous. To the common misconception that the Mona Lisa have always been the most famous painting in the world, it seems to have been not as famous before the theft made it a topic of national interest. According to the Time, “the huge publicity surrounding the theft helped to launch Leonardo's great painting into the stratosphere of fame” (Lacayo). As we have already seen in the Mona Lisa Curse, the celebrity status of the Mona Lisa is worldwide and its cultural impact tremendous. R.A. Scotti writes, "Mona Lisa left the Louvre a work of art…She returned an icon” (Lacayo).
*Fun fact: J.P. Morgan and Picasso were suspected for the theft and Picasso was actually questioned then set free!
Mona Lisa (left) and its empty spot in the Louvre (right)
A New York Times headline from August 24, 1911, reported the investigation into the disappearance of the "Mona Lisa.”
http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2011/07/28/article-.jpg?t=1312440019&s=2
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The Washington Post published this picture as the Mona Lisa in 1911. (Proof that the Mona Lisa was not well-known worldwide in 1911)
http://www.monalisamissing.com/The_Missing_Piece/Blog/Media/t_WP.jpg
Another interesting theft story is that of Magritte’s nude painting of his wife, Olympia, housed in the artist’s terrace home, which had been turned into an appointment-only museum (Guardian). The painting was stolen by three armed men in September of 2009 and recently returned to its owner in early January this year (Telegraph)! The bandits returned the painting because they were unable to sell it in the black market (Telegraph).
A stolen artwork’s monetary value temporarily plummets because it now has to be sold in the black market, where artworks can be sold at 3-10% of its estimated value (CBC). So if a painting that’s worth $1 million goes to the black market, it would be worth anywhere between $30,000 to $100,000. However, if returned, the work recovers its value, if it’s not priced even higher than it was before the theft.
I thought it was really interesting and ironic at the same time that the painting could not be of any value to the bandits because it was too famous. One would think that the more famous an artwork is, the more valuable it would be everywhere. Fortunately for Magritte and his fans, the opposite was true in the black market and the painting was able to return to its original location undamaged.
At the time of its robbery, Olympia was estimated to be worth £2.75 million. I’m not sure if its market value has actually changed because of the theft, but it was covered in many newspapers and magazines, including the NY Times, the Guardian, and the Telegraph, so I would guess that its value would have gone up. The more exposure an artwork gets, the more popular and thus more expensive it is likely to become. Also, once stolen, a work of art is more desired than before.
René Magritte. Olympia. 1948.
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René Magritte’s Olympia in its original location
If you guys want to listen to an art theft detective talk about how he tracked down the stolen Munch, The Scream, here’s the link: http://www.cbc.ca/day6/blog/2012/01/13/chasing-hot-art/
Works Cited
Chrisafis, Angelique. "Magritte Painting Stolen at Gunpoint." The Guardian. 24 Sept. 2009. Web. 15 Jan. 2012. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/sep/24/magritte-painting-stolen-brussels-olympia>.
Ellis, Richard. Chasing Hot Art. Inside the World of International Art Theft. CBC Radio, 13 Jan. 2012. Web. 14 Jan. 2012. <http://www.cbc.ca/day6/blog/2012/01/13/chasing-hot-art/>.
Lacayo, Richard. "Art's Great Whodunit: The Mona Lisa Theft of 1911." TIME.com. 27 Apr. 2009. Web. 14 Jan. 2012. <http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1894006,00.html>.
McNair, Carissa, and Charles Hill. "Art and Crime." The Art Business. By Iain Robertson and Derrick Chong. London: Routledge, 2008. 197-210. Print.
"The Theft That Made The 'Mona Lisa' A Masterpiece." NPR : National Public Radio. 30 July 2011. Web. 14 Jan. 2012. <http://www.npr.org/2011/07/30/138800110/the-theft-that-made-the-mona-lisa-a-masterpiece>.
Waterfield, Bruno. "£3.6 Million Stolen Magritte Painting Returned after Thieves Cannot Sell It on Black Market." Telegraph. 6 Jan. 2012. Web. 14 Jan. 2012. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/8998630/3.6-million-stolen-Magritte-painting-returned-after-thieves-cannot-sell-it-on-black-market.html>.