On 22nd February 1997, Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of a Lady” was stolen from the Galleria Ricci-Oddi in Piacenza, Italy.
The theft took place while the gallery itself was being renovated - just weeks before a special exhibition was planned. And to be honest, if there is ever an opportune moment to steal a painting, then the upheaval of a construction project is definitely a good time to choose!
Yet while the timing was understandable - almost everything else the investigators found here seemed to make no sense at all.
Fairly quickly, they had managed to find the painting’s frame - discarded on the rooftop of the building.
So, of course, the natural assumption would have been that the thief (or thieves) must have escaped via this route too . . . only, there was a major problem with this idea.
You see, the single and only way to get to this particular part of the roof was through a skylight which was actually far too small for the painting or the frame to fit through. (Let alone a person!)
Thus, after what seemed like an encouraging start - investigators were left entirely baffled.
How did the frame get there?
Why had it been left behind?
And, more importantly, where was the actual painting?
As always in the case of high profile art thefts - many theories were offered, but none ever seemed particularly reasonable.
There was talk of organised crime gangs - practical jokers - and even whispers that the whole thing was staged to help promote the upcoming exhibition (though it seems really quite absurd to imagine a museum intentionally humiliating itself like this).
Yet all of this was mere speculation.
And a few months later, things seemed to have been solved by sheer accident, when a package came into police hands addressed Bettino Craxi - the former Italian Prime Minister - who was, at the time, hiding from the law in Tunisia.
Inside, they found a portrait of a lady - every bit identical to the Klimt piece which had been stolen from the Galleria Ricci-Oddi
Yet all initial jubilation was soon cut short - because, on further analysis, it turned out that this version was a forgery.
And remarkably, this was a situation that would go on to happen many more times again.
Another package would be found (this time, addressed to someone else) . . . another painting with an all too familiar face would appear. . . and another moment of false hope would lead to disappointment, when it would once again be proven that this was another forgery.
So, what exactly was going on here?
Were the perpetrators of the original theft personally commissioning all these fakes to throw police off their trail? (Perhaps even to overtly mock them?)
Or was this a sign that there were actually two separate crimes needing to be investigated - and that, along with a potential gang of art thieves, there was also now a renegade art forger to deal with too?
Again . . . no-one could fully work it out.
And for the next 22 years - the mystery remained impossible to solve.
Even when the steady stream of fakes and forgeries slowly dried up (perhaps signifying that the possible “forger” had finally put down their paintbrushes, or at least changed subject!) . . . frankly, the entire case was increasingly seen as a lost cause.
It was all the same theories, with no new leads.
But then, out of nowhere, something truly unbelievable happened.
In December of 2019, a group of gardeners at the the Galleria Ricci-Oddi were clearing away some overgrown ivy from the exterior wall of the gallery.
And, to their surprise, they stumbled across a secret recess which had been cut into the wall itself.
No-one knew how it got there, nor what it was supposed to be used for.
But after a cautious inspection - a bag was removed.
And inside the bag . . . they discovered the long lost Klimt painting!!
This time, it was no fake.
Careful investigation with the latest in modern technology proved that this was unequivocally the original.
Yet still, to this very day, there remains no definitive account for who put it there, or how the painting came to be hidden in the very walls of the gallery it had been stolen from.
Had it really been there for all this time . . . literally, for 22 years?
Or is it possible that it had actually been returned much more recently - perhaps as part of an underhand deal with the individual who originally stole it.
_
Needless to say, the sheer surprise of this discovery has fanned even more flames to the idea that this was some kind of inside job or a hoax that went horribly wrong!
But then again, if the gallery really were doing this as a publicity stunt - I can’t help thinking a story like this would be seen as frankly too unbelievable to even lie about!
So, in that sense, the story of this particular theft still feels as if it is far from over.
And perhaps the only person who will ever be able to tell us the real truth here, is Klimt’s woman herself.
Only she knows exactly where she has been for all these years!
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Well told down to the last line!
What a cool story. I just read The Lady In Gold and hope to go see that 'stolen' painting in NY this summer. Klimt's pictures sure do have an air of mystery behind them.