Imagine you have in your living room a Vermeer. Not a copy, not a nice canvas print, but an original Vermeer! Well, now imagine that one day you wake up and… poof! It’s gone. It’s gone. As if by magic (but of the thieving Houdini kind).
So begins this story, or rather, these stories: the great mysteries of stolen art. Today we take you on a journey of movie-worthy crimes, thieves with the soul of an aesthete, and works that are still lost in time… and perhaps hanging in the house of someone who pretends not to know anything.
Vermeer’s “The Concert”: Missing in Style
One of the most famous paintings that remains unaccounted for is Johannes Vermeer’s “The Concert”. This gem of Baroque art, painted around 1664, is an intimate scene of three people playing music in a room. Quiet, elegant… and apparently very easy to steal.
The painting was stolen in 1990 from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, in what is considered the largest art theft in modern history. The total haul? 13 works of art valued at more than $500 million!
And the craziest thing: the thieves came in disguised as policemen, tied up the security guards (as if this were Money Heist: baroque version), and took their time -81 minutes exactly- to choose what they wanted. As if they were at the supermarket, but with Rembrandts.
“The Concert” is the most valuable work of all those stolen, and to this day… no trace. Some say it is hidden in some basement in Europe. Others believe it was destroyed to avoid being traced. And we say: what if it’s hanging behind a curtain in the living room of someone who just doesn’t have a clue?
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: where history stopped
The most shocking thing about the case is that the museum left the frames containing the stolen works empty. Just like that. As a kind of homage (or painful reminder) of what was taken.
Among the other pieces stolen that night were:
- “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee” by Rembrandt -his only marine painting.
- A Shang Dynasty Chinese vase (which clearly didn’t go with the rest, but hey…the thieves wanted something decorative too).
It’s been over 30 years, there have been crazy theories (like the Irish mafia was involved), and not a single work has been recovered. Nothing. Zero. Like when you’re looking for your keys and they’re right where you’ve already checked three times.
Raphael’s “Portrait of a Young Man”… or is it?
Now we travel to Poland, where we find another mystery with dramatic overtones: the supposed “Portrait of a Young Man” by Raphael.
This painting, which could have been his most important work, was stolen during World War II by the Nazis. Yes, those too had good (if macabre) artistic taste.
Since then, no one has ever seen it again. Some say it was destroyed. Others believe it was hidden in a private collection that some Nazi hierarch’s descendant still guards with suspicion. The fact is that its whereabouts remain a complete mystery… like the lid of the tupperware that disappears just when you need it most.
Why steal art if you can’t sell it?
Good question, dear Watson.
Famous paintings are impossible to sell in the legitimate market. How are you going to sneak into an auction with a stolen Vermeer? “Yes, hello, this painting I inherited from my great aunt, don’t worry about the FBI alarm.”
But some experts believe they are stolen by:
- Private commission: millionaire and eccentric collectors who say “I want it, whatever it costs.”
- Bargaining chips: to bargain with the police, reduce sentences, or trade for other illegal things (a painting for a shipment, for example… very 21st century).
- Ego and drama: as in the movies, because there are criminals with an artist complex.
The art of searching for stolen art
There are researchers who dedicate their lives to recovering missing works. People who know by heart museum catalogs, clues, and even detect if a painting is a fake just by smelling it (ok, maybe we exaggerate a little… or not).
There are even million-dollar rewards for some works. The FBI has a complete list of stolen art, and yes, “The Concert” is on the top. Some have been returned out of “remorse”, others have turned up in unusual ways, like in old trunks or dilapidated houses.
But many other works… are still lost. And therein lies the mystery.
Art is not only looked at, it is also missed
Beyond the joke, losing a work of art is like losing a part of history. It is not only the economic value, it is what it represents for humanity: beauty, culture, identity. Each stolen piece is a piece of legacy ripped from its place.
So the next time you visit a museum and see an empty wall (or a sign that says “stolen artwork”), stop for a moment. Maybe you’re looking at an unsolved mystery. Or maybe… you’ll become the detective who solves it!
Alternate ending worthy of Hollywood…
What if Netflix made a series about this? “Museum Crimes,” starring Pedro Pascal, with cameos by fancy thieves and desperate curators. We’d all watch it. Meanwhile, the stolen art is still there, tucked away in some corner of the world… waiting for its moment to shine again.
