Museum Stories

The Great Art Robbery… Foiled

Joanna Kaszubowska 23 October 2021 min Read

Recently I had the pleasure of reviewing the Rembrandt’s Light exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Sadly, on Thursday, 14th November 2019, the gallery was closed due to a failed attempt at a great art robbery. Namely, an audacious break-in on Wednesday night, 13th November, targeting two paintings by Rembrandt from the exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Scene

Imagine now the situation, because this, just like may other art burglary attempts is movie material. The relatively small Dulwich Picture Gallery, quite far from the city center, Wednesday night, around 11 pm, it is cold, humid, and dark outside. Someone breaks into the silent gallery and removes two selected paintings from the 35 Rembrandts hanging in the exhibition space. According to Detective Inspector Jason Barber from the Flying Squad: “This was an audacious attempted burglary and was clearly planned in advance.”

Action

Luckily for all of us, the planning was not impeccable. The burglar triggered the gallery’s security systems and at 11:30 p.m. the police were called. Officers arrived mere minutes later and, following a search of the area, challenged an intruder and one of them gave chase. Then the intruder sprayed the officer in the face with an unknown substance, managing to get away. Thankfully the police officer was not seriously injured and swiftly located one of the paintings. Police and security staff found the second painting shortly thereafter. Both paintings never left the gallery and are now safe.

Cut

As always in such cases, the question is not so much “why?,” we can all safely assume it was for the money. But who? (Which we may find out in due course.) And who was the buyer? (Which will probably remain a mystery, if the previous experience is to guide us.)

Credits

At this time the gallery has not disclosed which paintings were targeted and remains closed for investigation. Below, you can find a selection of the paintings by Rembrandt that were displayed on the Dulwich Picture Gallery exhibition.

Rembrandt van Rijn, The Denial of St. Peter, 1660, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Photo by the author.

Dulwich Picture Gallery
Rembrandt van Rijn, Landscape with the Rest on the Flight into Egypt, 1647, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland. Photo by the author.

Rembrandt, Philemon and Baucis 1658, National Gallery of Art, Washington, phot. Joanna Kaszubowska - Dulwich Picture Gallery
Rembrandt van Rijn, Philemon and Baucis, 1658, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA. Photo by the author.

Rembrandt's Light - Dulwich Picture Gallery
Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait in a Flat Cap, 1642, The Royal Collection, London, UK. Photo by the author.

Get your daily dose of art

Click and follow us on Google News to stay updated all the time

Recommended

Museum Stories

Social Media Giant Censors Leopold Museum Artworks

Vienna in Austria is currently the unlikely location of a David and Goliath battle, where the small (but perfectly formed) Leopold museum is taking on the global social media giant, Meta.

Candy Bedworth 29 July 2024

Kettle's Yard, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. Museum Stories

Kettle’s Yard: A Tour Through Cambridge’s Modern Art Gallery

Kettle’s Yard, a somewhat modest home in the middle of Cambridge, UK, harbors an impressive art collection of predominantly modern and abstract...

Ruxi Rusu 24 June 2024

Museum Stories

Museum Through the Eyes of Its Staff: Alte and Neue Pinakothek in Munich Staff Picks

From Titian and Rembrandt to Van Gogh and Goya, the Bavarian State Painting Collection (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen) in Munich, Germany,...

Szymon Jocek 24 June 2024

Photograph of the Montserrat Monastery (a building in the mountain cliffs). Museum Stories

10 Must-See Paintings at the Museum of Montserrat in Barcelona

The six permanent collections at the Museum of Montserrat near Barcelona house over 1,300 art and archeological objects. From an ancient Egyptian...

Nikolina Konjevod 22 April 2024