Stolen Cezanne Still Missing, Leonardo da Vinci Found: Timeline

Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- An 800,000 euro ($1.2 million) pastel by Edgar Degas was stolen last week from the Musee Cantini in Marseille, France. The work was on loan from the Musee d’Orsay in Paris for an exhibition.

The Degas theft follows other European art heists. In some cases, the artworks have been found.

On Feb. 10, 2008, in Switzerland’s biggest art theft, four paintings by Monet, Van Gogh, Degas and Cezanne worth more than $163 million at the time were stolen from the E.G. Buehrle Collection in Zurich. Three robbers wearing ski masks forced museum staff to the floor with a handgun and grabbed paintings close to the door of the ground-floor gallery. The Monet (“Poppies Near Vetheuil,” c. 1879) and the Van Gogh (“Blossoming Chestnut Branches,” 1890) were found eight days later on the back seat of an Opel Omega car in a Zurich parking lot. The other two, including the collection’s most expensive work, Cezanne’s “Boy in the Red Vest” (1894-5), are still missing.

In December 2005, a Henry Moore statue valued at 3 million pounds ($4.8 million) was stolen from the artist’s foundation at Much Hadham, in Hertfordshire, southern England. The bronze “Reclining Figure,” 10 feet (3 meters) long, was lowered with a crane onto a stolen Mercedes-Benz truck, closed-circuit- television images showed. Police said in May 2009 that the statue may have been melted down for scrap metal worth about 2,500 pounds.

On Aug. 22, 2004, a version of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” as well as his painting “Madonna” were stolen from Oslo’s Munch Museum in an armed robbery. The paintings were recovered two years later, on Aug. 31, 2006, and showed signs of having suffered damage during the heist. The following month, the paintings were put on display for five days, then withdrawn for restoration. They were shown after restoration in 2008.

In 2003, Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Madonna of the Yarnwinder” was stolen from Drumlanrig Castle, the Scottish home of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry. The painting was recovered in 2007. It’s now on loan to the National Gallery of Scotland and the focus of an exhibition.

On July 28, 1994, two late paintings by J.M.W. Turner were stolen from the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt while they were on loan from Tate for the exhibition “Goethe and the Visual Arts.” The three thieves and their driver were arrested in 1995 and convicted four years later. In 2000, the first of the two paintings (“Shade and Darkness -- The Evening of the Deluge,” exhibited in 1843) was found. The news was kept quiet for fear of compromising the other Turner’s recovery. “Light and Colour (Goethe’s Theory) -- The Morning After the Deluge -- Moses Writing the Book of Genesis” (exhibited in 1843) was recovered on Dec. 16, 2002. Both paintings were in Germany.

To contact the reporter on the story: Farah Nayeri in London at farahn@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Beech at mbeech@bloomberg.net.