playing card F1: Gainsborough: Portrait Lady Cavendish (1787)
April 14, 2020
playing card H3: Van Gogh: Poppy Flowers (1887)
April 14, 2020
Èdouard Manet: Chez Tortoni (1880)
completed
stolen
longest side (cm)
est. value ($ mill.)
Èdouard Manet
The painting “Chez Tortoni” by Édouard Manet was completed in 1880. It measures 26 cm x 33.7 cm and was stolen from the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990. Since then it has disappeared without a trace.
The description of Manet's “Chez Tortoni”
The painting “Chez Tortoni” by Édouard Manet shows a seated man with a suit and top hat. He looks directly at the viewer. He has a pen in his hand with which he draws or writes on paper. In the background you can see a wall, it could sit in or in front of a café.
Edouard Manet: Chez Tortoni. The artwork was stolen from the Boston Isabella Steward Gardner Museum in 1990. It has been missing since then.
The art theft from Manet's painting “Chez Tortoni”
While all of Boston was celebrating St. Patrick's Day in March 1990, the doorbell rang late at the main entrance to the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum. The security service in the museum keeps watch like every other day. The value of the Steward Gardner Museum is immeasurable: a total of around two and a half thousand important exhibits in art history can be viewed here. Just not at night, especially not for regular visitors.
With security cameras, the guards see two police officers standing at the entrance. "A silent alarm was raised, can we come in?" it sounds through the intercom. The security guards' regulations clearly state that you should never open the doors without first informing the museum director. Even better, you check the silent alarm, then send the waiting policemen away from the door and do not need to inform the museum director at all, especially not on St Patrick's Day, a holy holiday. But contrary to all regulations, the guards open the door and let the two police officers enter.
Stolen artwork worth approximately $540 million
Nun geht alles ganz schnell: Beide Wachleute werden von den Polizisten überwältigt, gefesselt und geknebelt und in unterschiedliche Räume gesperrt. Am nächsten Tag weiß es die ganze Welt: Zwei als Polizisten verkleidete Diebe stahlen gezielt 13 Kunstwerke im damaligen Wert von 300 Mio. Dollar – was einem heutigen Wert von etwa 540 Mio. Dollar entspricht. Unter den Gemälden ist Édouard Manets Kunstwerk Chez Tortoni. Das besonders tragische daran: Es ist bis heute nicht aufgetaucht. Alle 12 Gemälde sind seitdem verschollen.
Das FBI vermutet hinter diesem spektakulären Kunstraub den irischen Gangster James Bulger, der im Juni 2011 in Kalifornien festgenommen wurde – jedoch wegen 19-fachem Mord, Drogenhandel, Erpressung und Geldwäsche. Manche behaupten, dass Burgler die Kunstwerke in jener Nacht 1990 stehlen ließ, um strafmildernde Umstände nach seiner eventuellen Verhaftung zu bekommen – diese Strategie soll bei Kriminellen üblich sein.