Summary: The Stolen Cavalier blog by Anthony Amore and Vicki Oliveri crowd-sources New South Wales Art Gallery van Mieris art theft information since May 22, 2012.
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| "A Cavalier (Self Portrait)," oil on wood panel portrait by Dutch Golden Age painter Frans van Mieris the Elder; removed from Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) during art theft Sunday, June 10, 2007; security expert Anthony Amore notes on The Stolen Cavalier blog that "When a masterpiece goes missing, civilization loses a piece of its connection with the period in which it was created. When we abandon the search for such items, we are making a statement about our attitudes towards such matters -- a statement that does not speak well of us as a people.": Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
The 10th anniversary of the New South Wales Art Gallery van Mieris art theft in Sydney, Australia, acknowledges the fifth year in the New South Wales police's announced deactivation of search-and-rescue attempts.
The removal of the portable masterpiece by Frans van Mieris the Elder (April 16, 1635-March 12, 1681) of Leiden, Netherlands, bore the date June 10, 2007. The Sydney Morning Herald carried the date May 20, 2012, as the conclusion to the active campaign for conducting the oak-framed oil on panel back home.
Acting Sergeant Chris Nash described New South Wales Police Force investigations as suspended four years earlier, the year after removal and replacement with a permanent successor. He explained, "Police cannot speculate on why the artwork was stolen other than to speculate the artwork may have been sold to a black market investor."
Framed, A Cavalier (Self Portrait) by diamond setter, goldsmith, ruby carver Jan Bastiaans van Mieris's painter son fills an 11.69- by 16.54-inch (297- by 420-millimeter) space.
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| "Young Woman With Feather Fan Prepared to Go Out," the companion portrait to the stolen Cavalier, depicts the artist's wife, Cunera van der Cock, Frans van Mieris's wife, and reveals Frans van Mieris the Elder's skill in rendering textures (stofuit-drukking) and attests to his stature as a fine painter (fijnschilder); Kunstmuseum Basel, northwestern Switzerland: Public Domain, via The Athenaeum |
Framed, A Cavalier (Self Portrait) by diamond setter, goldsmith, ruby carver Jan Bastiaans van Mieris's painter son fills an 11.69- by 16.54-inch (297- by 420-millimeter) space.
Bright-colored, jewel- and stained glass-like sheens, generally on 12- to 15-square-inch (77.42- to 96.77-square-centimeter) copper or wood panels, give van Mieris the title fijnschilder (fine painter). The word stofuit-drukking (the rendering of textures) honors van Mieris's honing feathers, fur, glass, leather, metal, satin, silk, velvet, wool through thin layers and tiny brushes. Masterpieces inspire theft but impose limitations since Julian Radcliffe of Art Loss Register in London, United Kingdom, identifies sales as copies and security for drug deals.
Non-existent or non-productive leads within 90 days jump retrieval from months to years since FBI Special Agent Robert Goldman judges thieves and unscrupulous collectors prime controllers.
Vicki Oliveri, Stolen Cavalier blogger with Anthony Amore, security chief since 2005 at Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Massachusetts, knows of another missing van Mieris. The researcher specializing in art theft lists the disappearance of Man at a Window Smoking a Pipe from Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, Romania, in 1968. She mentions the portrait from 1658, within several years of the Cavalier auto-portrait, as mysterious in uses and whereabouts until making it to Florida in 1998. She notes its bearer, a Romanian immigrant unaware of the portrait's stolen status, as naming a Romanian gypsy's role in negotiating the masterpiece's sale in Romania.
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| Frans van Mieris the Elder's Man at a Window Smoking a Pipe, also known as Man With Pipe at the Window, disappeared from Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, Romania, in 1968; recovery of the oil on panel portrait (1658) occurred about three decades later, in 1998, in Florida: Google Art Project works from the Brukenthal National Museum, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
Vicki Oliveri, Stolen Cavalier blogger with Anthony Amore, security chief since 2005 at Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Massachusetts, knows of another missing van Mieris. The researcher specializing in art theft lists the disappearance of Man at a Window Smoking a Pipe from Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, Romania, in 1968. She mentions the portrait from 1658, within several years of the Cavalier auto-portrait, as mysterious in uses and whereabouts until making it to Florida in 1998. She notes its bearer, a Romanian immigrant unaware of the portrait's stolen status, as naming a Romanian gypsy's role in negotiating the masterpiece's sale in Romania.
The New South Wales Art Gallery van Mieris art theft occurred as the third or fourth of previously unlawful operations in 1942, possibly 1992 and 2004.
Sir William Dobell's (Sept. 24 1899-May 13, 1970) painted Study of a Woman Dozing and Yoshihiro Suda's wood-carved pink magnolia persist as 75- and 14-year-old mysteries. No leads queue up for them, or a possible theft around 1992, even though London-based Paul Hendry qualified as solid in 2012 for 2007 theft-related leads. He referenced eastern Australia- or Europe-based New South Wales Art Gallery van Mieris art theft controllers to Michael Maher, New South Wales Treasury Managed Fund-appointed investigator. Prohibitions against state government-negotiated rewards stopped information flows into investigations, deactivated and suspended June 2, 2008, on "technically still an open police" case June 27, 2012.
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| Australian artist William Dobell in 1942, the year his painting, Study of a Woman Dozing, disappeared from Australia's National Gallery of Art as "the first theft of a picture from a national gallery in Australia" (The West Australian, June 10, 1942, page 4); portrait by Australian modernist photographer Maxwell Dupain (April 22, 1911-July 27, 1992): National Library of Australia, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
Sir William Dobell's (Sept. 24 1899-May 13, 1970) painted Study of a Woman Dozing and Yoshihiro Suda's wood-carved pink magnolia persist as 75- and 14-year-old mysteries. No leads queue up for them, or a possible theft around 1992, even though London-based Paul Hendry qualified as solid in 2012 for 2007 theft-related leads. He referenced eastern Australia- or Europe-based New South Wales Art Gallery van Mieris art theft controllers to Michael Maher, New South Wales Treasury Managed Fund-appointed investigator. Prohibitions against state government-negotiated rewards stopped information flows into investigations, deactivated and suspended June 2, 2008, on "technically still an open police" case June 27, 2012.
Suspensions triggered observations by Anthony Amore, author of The Art of the Con, that "it's quite rare to hear that the search has been given up."
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| scene from interview of Anthony Amore, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Security Director, conducted Wednesday, March 18, 2015, by Jared Bowen, on-air reporter for Boston-based public radio station WGBH, in courtyard of Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Anthony Amore, via Facebook Sep. 14, 2017 |
Acknowledgment
My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.
Image credits:
Image credits:
"A Cavalier (Self Portrait)," oil on wood panel portrait by Dutch Golden Age painter Frans van Mieris the Elder; removed from Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) during art theft Sunday, June 10, 2007; security expert Anthony Amore notes on The Stolen Cavalier blog that "When a masterpiece goes missing, civilization loses a piece of its connection with the period in which it was created. When we abandon the search for such items, we are making a statement about our attitudes towards such matters -- a statement that does not speak well of us as a people.": Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frans-van-mieris-thecavalier.jpg
"Young Woman With Feather Fan Prepared to Go Out," the companion portrait to the stolen Cavalier " depicts the artist's wife, Cunera van der Cock, Frans van Mieris's wife, and reveals Frans van Mieris the Elder's skill in rendering textures (stofuit-drukking) and attests to his stature as a fine painter (fijnschilder); Kunstmuseum Basel, northwestern Switzerland: Public Domain, via The Athenaeum @ http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/detail.php?ID=263946
Frans van Mieris the Elder's Man at a Window Smoking a Pipe, also known as Man With Pipe at the Window, disappeared from Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, Romania, in 1968; recovery of the oil on panel portrait (1658) occurred about three decades later, in 1998, in Florida: Google Art Project works from the Brukenthal National Museum, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frans_van_Mieris_(I)_-_Man_with_Pipe_at_the_Window_(1658).jpg
Australian artist William Dobell in 1942, the year his painting, Study of a Woman Dozing, disappeared from Australia's National Gallery of Art as "the first theft of a picture from a national gallery in Australia" (The West Australian, June 10, 1942, page 4); portrait by Australian modernist photographer Maxwell Dupain (April 22, 1911-July 27, 1992): National Library of Australia, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Dobell_Max_Dupain.jpg
scene from interview of Anthony Amore, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Security Director, conducted Wednesday, March 18, 2015, by Jared Bowen, on-air reporter for Boston-based public radio station WGBH, in courtyard of Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Anthony Amore, via Facebook Sep. 14, 2017, @ https://www.facebook.com/AnthonyAmoreMA/posts/1581901891830757/; via Facebook Sep. 14, 2017, @ https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1581901891830757&set=a.572303806123909; via Facebook Sep. 14, 2017, @ https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1581901891830757&set=ecnf.100057892487069; GBH News, "Gardner Museum Security Director On 25-Year-Long Art Heist Investigation," via YouTube March 18, 2015, @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkNj0825jIQ&t=68s
For further information:
For further information:
Amore, Anthony; and Oliveri, Vicki. Stolen Cavalier: Dedicated to Recovering a Cavalier by Frans van Mieris Through Crowd-Sourcing Information. Blog at WordPress.com.
Available @ https://stolencavalier.wordpress.com/
Available @ https://stolencavalier.wordpress.com/
ARC CEPS. 28 November 2012. "Vicki Oliveri 2012 CEPS Conference." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_RmF1cjzhE
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_RmF1cjzhE
Doyle, Margaret; and Dullaart, Jephta. 2006. Amorous Intrigues and Painterly Refinement: The Art of Frans van Mieris. Washington DC: Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art.
Available @ https://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/vanmieris/vanmieris_brochure.pdf
Available @ https://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/vanmieris/vanmieris_brochure.pdf
Marriner, Derdriu. 16 June 2017. "Jacques Blanchard and New South Wales Art Gallery Van Mieris Art Theft." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/06/jacques-blanchard-and-new-south-wales.html
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/06/jacques-blanchard-and-new-south-wales.html
Marriner, Derdriu. 9 June 2017. "New South Wales Art Gallery van Mieris Art Theft June 10, 2007." Earth and Spaces News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/06/new-south-wales-art-gallery-van-mieris.html
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/06/new-south-wales-art-gallery-van-mieris.html
Oliveri, Vicki. 2014. "A Tale of Two Cities, A Tale of Two Art Thefts." Pp. 79-99. In: Contemporary Perspectives on the Detection, Investigation and Prosecution of Art Crime: Australasian, European and North American Perspectives. Edited by Duncan Chappell and Saskia Hufnagel. Farnham, Surrey, United Kingdom; and Burlington VT: Ashgate Publishing.
Available @ https://books.google.com/books?id=TCgpDAAAQBAJ
Available @ https://books.google.com/books?id=TCgpDAAAQBAJ
Sabba, Charles. 14 February 2014. "Art Crimes Portraits: Gardner Gossips Lecture 2014." Gardner Heist Gossips blog.
Available @ http://gardnerheistgossips.blogspot.com/
Available @ http://gardnerheistgossips.blogspot.com/
Taylor, Andrew. 20 May 2012. "Search for Stolen Masterpiece Ends." The Sydney Morning Herald > Entertainment > Art.
Available @ http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/search-for-stolen-masterpiece-ends-20120519-1yxis.html
Available @ http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/search-for-stolen-masterpiece-ends-20120519-1yxis.html
Taylor, Andrew. 6 June 2015. "A Cavalier Approach: Investigation of Art Gallery of NSW's Stolen Painting Mishandled." The Sydney Morning Herald > Entertainment > Art.
Available @ http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/a-cavalier-approach-investigation-of-art-gallery-of-nsws-stolen-painting-mishandled-20150608-ghi4e1.html
Available @ http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/a-cavalier-approach-investigation-of-art-gallery-of-nsws-stolen-painting-mishandled-20150608-ghi4e1.html
"Theft from Gallery of New South Wales." Federal Bureau of Investigation > What We Investigate > Violent Crime > Art Theft > FBI Top Ten Art Crimes Art Crime Team.
Available @ https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/violent-crime/art-theft/fbi-top-ten-art-crimes/theft-from-art-gallery-of-new-south-wales
Available @ https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/violent-crime/art-theft/fbi-top-ten-art-crimes/theft-from-art-gallery-of-new-south-wales
The West Australian. 10 June 1942. "Art Gallery Theft: Painting Taken From Frame." Trove Australia > Digitised Newspapers > The West Australian (Perth, WA: 1879-1954), Wednesday, June 10, 1942: page 4.
Available @ https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47335718
Available @ https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47335718
