Art Lovers discussion
Do You Know Your Art Heists?
>
A Swift Summer Swipe
date
newest »
newest »
Clue #1 This painting was stolen the first time in June 1997 and found 10 years later
Clue #2 it was found in Kuwait when it was found last time it was missing for 10 years
Clue #3 This happened August 2010Is this too difficult? You know you can ask me questions...
I’ll leave one more clue:Clue #4 It was a Van Gogh that went missing
Poppy flowers by Vincent van Gogh from a Cairo museum..
Dang boy! You got it!! First guess got it! Good job!
Poppy Flowers
Vincent van Gogh
When the Vincent van Gogh still life “Poppy Flowers” was stolen from Egypt’s Mahmoud Khalil museum Saturday, no one noticed at first.
None of the alarms meant to protect the artwork in the museum sounded. Only seven of 43 security cameras were working. Just 10 people visited the museum that day and guards were scarce enough that the thieves were able to drag a couch underneath the painting to stand on while cutting the $55 million painting from its frame in broad daylight.
Those are some of the security failures that Egyptian officials have pledged to address as they react with outrage to the daring heist...
“Poppy Flowers” was hanging in the Mahmoud Khalil Museum, the former home of a 1930s Egyptian politician that now houses his collection of more than 300 paintings and 50 sculptures, including works by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Gaugin, and van Gogh. Such security failures at a museum with a collection worth an estimated $1.2 billion are surprising, even in Cairo, where metal detectors are ubiquitous but seldom put to real use. (The metal detector at the Mahmoud Khalil museum was said to be broken.)
Zahi Hawas, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in a statement Tuesday that Egypt would create a central security office to monitor its museums, and that Mr. Hosni would review museum security procedures.
Mr. Hawass is eager to keep the heist from being used as an argument against his mission to recover the ancient Egyptian artifacts held by international museums. The Ministry of Culture and the public prosecutor‘s office refused to comment on the issue. Hosni caused confusion when he falsely declared the painting recovered and the thieves apprehended at the Cairo Airport, later claiming his statement was guided by false information.
Julian Radcliffe, founder of The Art Loss Register, which maintains a database of stolen artwork, says properly protecting artwork is no simple task. It requires costly technological safeguards, such as burglar alarms and camera surveillance, and guards in every room.
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middl...
Can you believe this security deficiency?
Someone casually, somehow without anyone noticing, pushed a couch up to the wall and carefully cut a painting out of its frame, rolled it up and tucked it away as he or she made off with it.
Yes, only one work went missing that day but that’s all that was wanted and it was so easy! How did nobody notice that?
Apparently the alarm system was all a facade, a literal ‘false alarm’ and only 7 of the 43 security cameras were working.
Two Italians were seen coming in with a group , they both went to the bathroom then hurried out the door. Did they have something to do with this? Or could this be an inside job?
This must be a special painting as this is the second time it has gone missing from this same museum. It’s net worth is said to be around $50M. Was it recovered? Was there an arrest? What happened?
What was stolen?
When did this take place?
What city/country is this?
Was the painting ever recovered?
Was there ever an arrest made?