playing card A1: Da Vinci: Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) 1506
April 14, 2020
playing card B1: Rembrandt: Self Portrait (1630)
April 14, 2020
Carl Spitzweg: The Poor Poet (1839)
completed
stolen
longest side (cm)
est. value ($ mill.)
Carl Spitzweg: "The Poor Poet"
Carl Spitzweg's painting "The poor poet" is one of the most famous paintings in Germany from the German Biedermeier period. What is less known is that there are four versions of Spitzweg's painting “The Poor Poet”. An oil sketch on paper and a first, carefully executed picture on canvas date from 1837 and were on loan for a long time in the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg. It was returned to a Swiss private collector in 2013. The sketch surprisingly showed up for auction at Sotheby’s in London in January 2012 and fetched $ 542,500.
One of the four versions was stolen in the Charlottenburg Palace on September 4, 1989 and has since disappeared without a trace. The insurance value is estimated at one million euros.
Art theft as an art action: Ulay steals the painting from the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin
Spitzweg painted two more, almost identical versions in 1839. One came in 1887 as a gift from the nephew to the Munich Neue Pinakothek, where it is still on display today. The other belonged to the collection of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. There it was stolen by the performance artist Ulay (Frank Uwe Laysiepen) in 1976 as part of a spectacular art campaign for several hours. He let himself be filmed. You can see the robbery, the escape and how he hangs the picture on the wall in the apartment of a Turkish guest worker family. Then he gave it back. Sentenced for theft, he should choose between a fine or a prison sentence. The destitute artist fled abroad and was arrested two years later while trying to enter the German border. A friend of art sponsored the outstanding amount. Ulay was released. The campaign is documented at www.medienkunstnetz.de.
Der Kunstraub von Caspar David Friedrichs “Nebelschwaden”
Im Rahmen der Ausstellung “Goethe und die Kunst” in der Kunsthalle Schirn in Frankfurt wurden am 28. Juli 1994 drei Ölgemälde aus der Zeit der Romantik gestohlen: Caspar David Friedrichs “Nebelschwaden”, J. M. Turners “Schatten und Dunkelheit – der Abend nach der Sintflut” und “Light and Colour (Licht und Farbe)”. Das Gemälde von Caspar David Friedrich war eine Leihgabe der Kunsthalle Hamburg, die beiden Turner-Gemälde eine Leihgabe der Londoner Tate Gallery.
Drei Männer haben sich in der Nacht zum 28. Juli 1994 in der Kunsthalle Schirn einschließen lassen und überwältigten in der Nacht einen Wachmann. Anschließend nahmen sie die drei Gemälde von der Wand und verschwanden mit den zusammen mind. 50 Mio. D-Mark wertvollen Kunstwerken. Wenige Tage später werden am Tatort dank Fingerabdrücken zwei Diebe gefasst. Sie geben jedoch den Aufenthalt der Gemälde nicht preis. 1999 wurden sie mit Haftstrafen von acht und elf Jahren verurteilt.
Carl Spitzweg's painting The Poor Poet from 1839. There are four versions. A version was stolen in the Charlottenburg castle in 1989 and has been lost since then.