THE ARCHIVE BY COUNTRY
Published reports from our archive, newest first.
A country may refer to the theft, recovery, return or legal proceedings. A case can be linked to more than one country.
73 reports · Page 2 / 4
Italian painter Lino Frongia was arrested as investigators examined suspected Old Master forgeries sold for millions. The case also involved dealer Giuliano Ruffini, transferred to France and charged in December 2022 with organised fraud and money laundering. At the article's publication, these were allegations under investigation; no conviction of Frongia was reported.
The Centre Pompidou treated three paintings damaged in the 2020 Beirut explosion. They included Kees van Dongen’s portrait of Nicolas Sursock, the collector whose former home houses the Sursock Museum.
Mexico’s culture authorities asked Millon to halt the Paris auction scheduled for April 3, 2023. The National Institute of Anthropology and History identified 83 objects on offer as protected under Mexican law. Millon said the sale would proceed and defended the provenance of the lots.
Christie’s sold Adriaen van der Werff’s The Penitent Magdalene in London in 2005. The painting appears in the French register of looted goods as part of Lionel Hauser’s collection, seized in Paris in 1942. On January 27, 2023, a Paris court ordered the auction house to return the panel to Hauser’s descendants.
Giquello & Associés proceeded with its November 22 Paris sale of pre-Columbian art. Mexican authorities identified 62 lots as archaeological monuments under Mexican law and asked the auctioneer to withdraw them. Officials also reported lodging complaints. Artnet reported sales of €314,167, below the presale estimate. Image: ceramic figures offered at the sale, courtesy of Giquello & Associés.
Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa — historical reproduction, Library of Congress. Image source ↗
A Library of Congress historical account describes the theft of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911, its recovery in Italy and return in 1913. The record date is the account’s publication on 22 August 2022, not the theft date. The Louvre independently corroborates the recovery.
A painted angel panel found in a Toulouse home in July 2021 was identified as the work of the German painter Bernhard Strigel. Specialists proposed that it was the long-separated companion to the Thurifer Angel in the Louvre Abu Dhabi collection.
France’s Cour de cassation upheld convictions over a bronze presented as Ossip Zadkine’s The Return of the Prodigal Son. It overturned only one intermediary’s fine and remanded that issue. The image shows a related version in the Musée Zadkine collection, Paris Musées.
Transport of the royal treasures returned to Benin. Photograph published by the Élysée. Image source ↗
The French presidency confirmed the return to Benin of 26 works from Abomey’s royal treasures, following the 9 November 2021 ownership transfer. Taken during the 1892 conquest of Dahomey, the group includes royal statues, thrones and doors. This restitution concerns the Republic of Benin, distinct from Benin City in Nigeria.
Nudes in a Landscape was returned to the heirs of Hugo and Gertrud Simon. The painting was found in the basement of the Palais de Tokyo in 1966. Provenance researchers linked it to Hugo Simon, a German Jewish collector, but could not establish the entire route it took. Image: Centre Pompidou.
Five gilded bronze figures were withdrawn from a Bonhams Paris sale after researchers identified them as figures removed from the gate of a temple in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley. Photo shows the frieze above the golden gateway at Patan Durbar Square.
Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History asked Christie’s to withdraw at least 30 objects, asserting cultural patrimony claims and questioning the authenticity of three items. Christie’s proceeded with the auction. Photo shows a Veracruz Cihuateotl figure offered in the sale.
A reported counterfeit of Pont à Giverny helped investigators uncover a network suspected of selling hundreds of counterfeit paintings. The report describes an investigation.
Reuters reported that Italy returned Banksy’s Bataclan fire-exit-door mural to France on 14 July 2020. Stolen in January 2019, the door had been found in an Italian farmhouse in June 2020.
The small late-13th-century panel Christ Mocked was identified after it was found hanging in a kitchen near Compiègne. It sold in Senlis in October 2019 for €24.1 million including fees. The Louvre later acquired the work, which France had classified as a national treasure.
An owner alleged her lawyer wrongfully took a work attributed to Yves Klein. Cross-checked with Europe 1. These are allegations reported in 2019. No final judgment was verified here.
Gilbert & George, There Were Two Young Men, 1971 — © Gilbert & George / Primae / David Bordes, Fondation Louis Vuitton. Image source ↗
Gilbert & George’s six-part charcoal-on-paper work There Were Two Young Men (April 1971) was exhibited in Paris in 2019 after its recovery following theft from Turin’s Sperone gallery. The 18 July 2019 account says its absence was discovered in 1986 and a telephone call in 2006 led to recovery. Fondation Louis Vuitton acquired and displayed the complete work. The six parts form one artwork, not six separate thefts.
A preparatory study for Women of Algiers was identified after being kept by a Paris family. The rediscovery was checked against June 2019 AFP reporting. No theft claim was verified.
The Toulouse Judith and Holofernes sold privately in June 2019 before its planned auction. Checked against Le Monde and Artsy. Attribution to Caravaggio was disputed.
Preaching of Saint Vincent Ferrier, an early-sixteenth-century painting attributed to Nicolas Cordonnier, was identified in a private collection in Pau. A June 2019 auction preview described its rediscovery. This is not a theft report.
Paul Signac, Port de la Rochelle, 1915 — the recovered painting. Image source ↗
Paul Signac’s Port de la Rochelle (1915), stolen from Nancy’s fine arts museum in 2018, was recovered by Ukrainian police during a search in a murder investigation. The 24 April 2019 report describes recovery and arrangements for return to France, rather than a completed return to museum display.
