The Rescue Artist (14 page)

Francisco de Goya,
Dona Antonia Zarate
, c. 1810
oil on canvas, 82 × 103.5 cm
© Courtesy of the National Gallery of Ireland

In an undercover sting that reached its climax at an airport in Belgium, Charley Hill recovered two immensely valuable paintings stolen from Russborough House in Dublin. Both paintings were stashed in the trunk of a car, Goya’s
Dona Antonia Zarate
rolled up like a cheap poster, Vermeer’s
Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid
concealed inside a plastic trash bag.

Jan Vermeer,
Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid
, c. 1670
oil on canvas, 71.1 × 60.5 cm
© Courtesy of the National Gallery of Ireland

Only thirty-five Vermeers exist, and over the years three have been stolen. One,
The Concert
, has been missing since 1990.

In 1995, thieves stole Titian’s
Rest on the Flight into Egypt
, worth perhaps $10 million, from England’s Lord Bath. An ex-hippie, an artist himself, and a self-proclaimed womanizer (portraits of seventy-one of his “wifelets” adorn his home), Lord Bath had inherited the painting from an ancestor who purchased it in 1878. After a seven-year search, Charley Hill recovered the painting. Here Lord Bath returns his Titian to its rightful place in Longleat House.

Longleat House is huge and isolated, with 100 rooms and grounds that stretch across 9,000 acres. Like Britain’s other stately homes, it is a sitting duck for thieves. By the time police arrive, the crooks have long since fled.

Francisco de Goya,
Portrait of the Duke of Wellington
, 1812
oil on wood, 52.4 × 64.3 cm
© The National Gallery, London

In 1961 Goya’s
Portrait of the Duke of Wellington
disappeared from London’s National Gallery, which had purchased it only weeks before. The painting was recovered four years later, but it made a cameo appearance in 1962 in the first James Bond film,
Dr. No
, in the villain’s Caribbean hideaway.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn,
Jacob III de Gheyn
, 1632
oil on panel, 24.9 × 29.9 cm
© Dulwich Picture Gallery

The most stolen painting of all is Rembrandt’s
Jacob III de Gheyn
, which has been stolen (and recovered) four times so far. Like most stolen paintings, the portrait is by a brand-name artist and small, not quite eight inches by ten, easy to fit inside a jacket. London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery insists its security is now impeccable.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn,
Storm on the Sea of Galilee
, 1633
oil on canvas, 127 × 160 cm

On March 17, 1990, two thieves broke into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and stole $300 million worth of art. Mrs. Gardner’s will stipulated that her museum be kept just as she had arranged it. Below, a visitor looks at the frame that once held Rembrandt’s only seascape,
Storm on the Sea of Galilee
. The painting itself is shown left.

© Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA /Bridgeman Art Library

Edouard Manet,
Chez Tortoni
, 1878-80
oil on canvas, 34 × 26 cm
© Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA /Bridgeman Art Library

The Gardner theft was the biggest in the history of art. The greatest prizes included Manet’s
Chez Tortoni
and Vermeer’s
Concert
. The case remains unsolved, and all the paintings are still missing.

Jan Vermeer,
The Concert
. c. 1658-60
oil on canvas, 64.7 × 72.5 cm
© Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA /Bridgeman Art Library

The highest price ever paid for a painting was $104.1 million for Picasso’s
Boy with a Pipe
, at a Sotheby’s auction in May 2004.
Boy with a Pipe
, not considered one of Picasso’s masterpieces, set a record that eclipsed the previous high, $82.5 million for van Gogh’s
Portrait of Dr. Gachet
. Prices like those make news. The news draws crowds, and not all those in the crowds are solid citizens.