Featured Tantalizing tale of a stolen painting discovered

The de Kooning version:


and a follow up:


Looks like there’s more interesting content created about this story but these are good starting points. I’d imagine some of you heard about this a few years ago but it was new to me.

Edit: let’s add this one. Not that I condone this throw of thing but these people would have probably been fun to hang out with. Also the executor of the estate should win bonehead of the millennium for giving away the entire estate for 2k. Most for the zero dollars and the remnants for 2k. Even if you don’t count the de Kooning and the other two paintings. I’d love to know how the store did on what they got for 2k. The owner claiming the 165 million dollar masterpiece was the ugliest painting he had even seen was great. I suppose he’d prefer a piece of furniture shop factory art of windmill or something.

 

I watched that episode Dag-discreetly hung behind the bedroom door.
PS-Think how many velvet Elvis painting the orig owner can buy for 165 Mil ?
PSS- I don't get the same thrill frm shoplifting as I did when I was 12-but I guess if you're going to steal something many of the world's museum sound like great (and soft) targets !
... what do the owners do who just had the art 'on loan' do ?

 

I can't access the last video, but did find this article suggesting they stole more than 'just' the de Kooning painting:

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/alters-de-kooning-painting-harwood-museum-heist-2482856

 

I will never understand art, lol

 

But was it art? (LOL)

 

Yep Tique- if the international art gods deem it 'ART' and you find it for a few bucks you can live like a Tech Bro for the rest of yr days, and just pick for a laugh !

 

That sounds like what these two did, of somewhat less legally. They picked stuff that people already said was worth money.

 

owner of art kn loan would hopefully have good insurance in this instance! Or be far up a creek named shit.

 

It didn’t show up the same way the others did. However in the black box where is says “video unavailable” at the very bottom you should be able to click “watch on YouTube”. At least I can on my end. It seems to only be blocking the video from playing on this page, not the link from working altogether. I could be wrong though.

 

The theory presented in the follow up video is that the female half of the couple may have actually been de Kooning’s model for this piece. Theory goes they may have felt a sense of ownership over it for that reason. Though obviously the law would disagree. If someone had painted a sexy picture of my wife I could see wanting it I guess.

 

Thanks, that works.
I'm so used to videos from the US that are blocked for the EU that I didn't even look further.

 

Just a story, imo. She didn't sit for the other stolen paintings. The two paintings from the Harwood Foundation were stolen in March 1985, the de Kooning in November 1985. So they had already stolen at least two paintings before the de Kooning.
There is no excuse for what they did. I sat for several paintings, but own only one of them, which I got for mates' rates. The thought of stealing the other portraits never entered my mind.

 

To actually buy a work by an unknown artist and then have said piece hit a Basquiat,Haring or Banksy price point is in IMHO more accident than accurate fiscal prediction. Dozens of things have to favorably converge to whet the rich poseurs appetites-(personal taste y/n ?).
Billionaires pay for the kind of expertise that let them shelter their cash in fungible tranches of AI and Art way before it's on most mortals radar.

 

OTOH I have lots of original art, signed by me because I painted it, that's worth less than the materials used to paint it.

 

It’s never too late! The dark side awaits! I can hear those works beckoning you.

 

I don't hear a thing.

 

"Buy me. You know you want me...."

 

I’m sure we’d all love to see your work! Likewise with the work AJ modeled for. Maybe a collectors market for your pieces will swell up suddenly.

 

pffft!