Rain Man
04-12-2020, 11:10 PM
I missed this story when if first broke a few months ago, but that's good as other events have transpired that add to the story.
We start our mystery in 1997, when the Ricci Oddi modern art gallery in Piacenza, Italy, was being renovated. This painting by Gustav Klimt, valued at between $60 million and $90 million today, disappeared. Only a few months earlier, it had been confirmed as a "double Klimt" because it was painted over an earlier Klimt that had long been assumed to be missing. An 18 year-old art student had noticed the resemblance and an x-ray confirmed her theory.
This was a big deal, so the city was planning to do a big Klimt exhibition, and as a result the gallery was being renovated.
https://www.archaeology.wiki/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/klimt_pinakas-507x338.jpg
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/painting-found-inside-walls-italian-gallery-may-be-stolen-klimt-180973757/
According to this article, the theory at the time was that thieves had opened a skylight, hooked the painting on the wall with fishing line, and lifted it out. Apparently the frame was found on the roof, and the painting had been removed. (If you're suspecting a fisherman, recall that this was long before Hog's Gone Fishing bought his boat.)
However, there was a problem with that theory. The frame was too large to fit through the skylight. So was it planted there to throw people off? Some people suspected an inside job. (Note: the frame was found in pieced according to another article, so that could explain it.)
https://www.travelandleisure.com/culture-design/missing-gustav-klimt-portrait-of-a-lady-painting-found-22-years-later-ricci-oddi-gallery
https://www.thecollector.com/stolen-klimt-found/
The painting is missing for over 20 years, and in 2016 a known art thief that the police had used as an expert to investigate the crime came forward. He claimed that he had actually stolen the painting, but not in the way that was suspected. He had stolen it months earlier with the help of a gallery employee and had replaced it with a forgery, which had gone unnoticed. But the painting was about to be loaned out for a large Klimt exhibit and he thought that forgery would be seen, so he staged the second theft to steal the forgery.
https://hermoments.com/famous-painting-gallery/?nogdprc=1
Okay, this makes no sense. Why take that risk? You're covering up a theft by staging a theft of the thing you stole? But interestingly, he claimed that the real painting would be found within a year.
Now we fast forward to December of 2019. The gardener at the gallery is doing some maintenance, and he notices a metal door in an exterior wall behind some ivy. He pulls off the ivy, estimated to be about a foot thick, opens the door, then goes into the gallery, and says, "There's a painting in a garbage bag out inside the wall."
https://wtop.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Italy_Stolen_Klimt__69827-1880x1058.jpg
As it turns out, the painting is the missing the Klimt. Experts came in and confirmed it, per this link.
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/klimt-painting-authentic-intl-scli/index.html
So now the question is, did the painting ever leave the building? Who stole it, and why was it hidden there?
Well, a potential answer presented itself. Two serial burglars and thieves came forward relatively quickly and claimed that they stole it. They say that they had hidden it in a safe place, and then they put into the wall after the 20-year statute of limitations had expired. According to the thieves, they were going to use the location as a bartering chip to get a lower sentence on some other burglaries. They claim that the painting had been in the wall for three to four years, waiting for them to need it. They said that the gardener foiled their plan by finding it. (I don't think either of these guys is the thief referenced earlier, but I'm not sure.)
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/klimt-thieves-confess-to-returning-the-stolen-painting-found-by-gardeners-in-an-italian-gallery-1757958
The curiosity here is that it was underneath a lot of dense ivy. Now, the ivy could have grown in four years, but was it always there? If it was there before they would've had to cut it out to put the painting in, which would be noticeable. If it wasn't there, the door would have been obvious. But conservators say that the painting was in such good shape that it's unlikely that it would have been in the wall the entire time.
So those dudes have been sentenced to prison, but are not being charged in the theft of the Klimt because there's no evidence that they did it.
But now another mystery has emerged.
https://www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2020/02/13/mystery-of-stolen-klimt-painting-investigation-of-gallery-owners-widow/
Apparently the director of the gallery wrote in his diary that he was considering staging a theft of that very painting, in order to build up public interest for an upcoming Klimt exhibition. The gallery director died long ago, but now his widow is under investigation for the theft.
This is what he wrote:
“I wondered what could be done to give the exhibition some notoriety, to ensure an audience success like never before. And the idea that came to me was to organize, from the inside, theft of the Klimt, just before the show (exactly, my God, what happened), for the work to then be rediscovered after the show began.”
Later he wrote: “But now The Lady has gone for good, and damned be the day I even thought of such a foolish and childish thing.”
https://www.thecollector.com/stolen-klimt-found/
https://www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2020/02/13/mystery-of-stolen-klimt-painting-investigation-of-gallery-owners-widow/
So that produces two new theories.
First, was it stolen to create buzz, and then when things got ugly they decided that it was a bad idea and hid it in a place where they knew it would eventually be found?
Or second, is it possible that the gallery owner conspired with the first thief to steal the painting before the "Double Klimt" status was discovered (which then led to the exhibit), and the gallery director then got nervous about the exhibit coming up and stole the forgery to cover it up?
What do we think, Chiefsplanet detectives?
We start our mystery in 1997, when the Ricci Oddi modern art gallery in Piacenza, Italy, was being renovated. This painting by Gustav Klimt, valued at between $60 million and $90 million today, disappeared. Only a few months earlier, it had been confirmed as a "double Klimt" because it was painted over an earlier Klimt that had long been assumed to be missing. An 18 year-old art student had noticed the resemblance and an x-ray confirmed her theory.
This was a big deal, so the city was planning to do a big Klimt exhibition, and as a result the gallery was being renovated.
https://www.archaeology.wiki/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/klimt_pinakas-507x338.jpg
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/painting-found-inside-walls-italian-gallery-may-be-stolen-klimt-180973757/
According to this article, the theory at the time was that thieves had opened a skylight, hooked the painting on the wall with fishing line, and lifted it out. Apparently the frame was found on the roof, and the painting had been removed. (If you're suspecting a fisherman, recall that this was long before Hog's Gone Fishing bought his boat.)
However, there was a problem with that theory. The frame was too large to fit through the skylight. So was it planted there to throw people off? Some people suspected an inside job. (Note: the frame was found in pieced according to another article, so that could explain it.)
https://www.travelandleisure.com/culture-design/missing-gustav-klimt-portrait-of-a-lady-painting-found-22-years-later-ricci-oddi-gallery
https://www.thecollector.com/stolen-klimt-found/
The painting is missing for over 20 years, and in 2016 a known art thief that the police had used as an expert to investigate the crime came forward. He claimed that he had actually stolen the painting, but not in the way that was suspected. He had stolen it months earlier with the help of a gallery employee and had replaced it with a forgery, which had gone unnoticed. But the painting was about to be loaned out for a large Klimt exhibit and he thought that forgery would be seen, so he staged the second theft to steal the forgery.
https://hermoments.com/famous-painting-gallery/?nogdprc=1
Okay, this makes no sense. Why take that risk? You're covering up a theft by staging a theft of the thing you stole? But interestingly, he claimed that the real painting would be found within a year.
Now we fast forward to December of 2019. The gardener at the gallery is doing some maintenance, and he notices a metal door in an exterior wall behind some ivy. He pulls off the ivy, estimated to be about a foot thick, opens the door, then goes into the gallery, and says, "There's a painting in a garbage bag out inside the wall."
https://wtop.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Italy_Stolen_Klimt__69827-1880x1058.jpg
As it turns out, the painting is the missing the Klimt. Experts came in and confirmed it, per this link.
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/klimt-painting-authentic-intl-scli/index.html
So now the question is, did the painting ever leave the building? Who stole it, and why was it hidden there?
Well, a potential answer presented itself. Two serial burglars and thieves came forward relatively quickly and claimed that they stole it. They say that they had hidden it in a safe place, and then they put into the wall after the 20-year statute of limitations had expired. According to the thieves, they were going to use the location as a bartering chip to get a lower sentence on some other burglaries. They claim that the painting had been in the wall for three to four years, waiting for them to need it. They said that the gardener foiled their plan by finding it. (I don't think either of these guys is the thief referenced earlier, but I'm not sure.)
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/klimt-thieves-confess-to-returning-the-stolen-painting-found-by-gardeners-in-an-italian-gallery-1757958
The curiosity here is that it was underneath a lot of dense ivy. Now, the ivy could have grown in four years, but was it always there? If it was there before they would've had to cut it out to put the painting in, which would be noticeable. If it wasn't there, the door would have been obvious. But conservators say that the painting was in such good shape that it's unlikely that it would have been in the wall the entire time.
So those dudes have been sentenced to prison, but are not being charged in the theft of the Klimt because there's no evidence that they did it.
But now another mystery has emerged.
https://www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2020/02/13/mystery-of-stolen-klimt-painting-investigation-of-gallery-owners-widow/
Apparently the director of the gallery wrote in his diary that he was considering staging a theft of that very painting, in order to build up public interest for an upcoming Klimt exhibition. The gallery director died long ago, but now his widow is under investigation for the theft.
This is what he wrote:
“I wondered what could be done to give the exhibition some notoriety, to ensure an audience success like never before. And the idea that came to me was to organize, from the inside, theft of the Klimt, just before the show (exactly, my God, what happened), for the work to then be rediscovered after the show began.”
Later he wrote: “But now The Lady has gone for good, and damned be the day I even thought of such a foolish and childish thing.”
https://www.thecollector.com/stolen-klimt-found/
https://www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2020/02/13/mystery-of-stolen-klimt-painting-investigation-of-gallery-owners-widow/
So that produces two new theories.
First, was it stolen to create buzz, and then when things got ugly they decided that it was a bad idea and hid it in a place where they knew it would eventually be found?
Or second, is it possible that the gallery owner conspired with the first thief to steal the painting before the "Double Klimt" status was discovered (which then led to the exhibit), and the gallery director then got nervous about the exhibit coming up and stole the forgery to cover it up?
What do we think, Chiefsplanet detectives?