Over the past few weeks, brazen thieves have stolen art from shuttered museums in Europe as Covid-19 forces people to stay at home.
Police are looking for art works by Van Gogh, Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Annibal Caracci, and Salvator Rosa, taken in two separate heists.
Other thieves were foiled in their attempt to steal a priceless crucifixion painting by the Flemish master, Pieter Bruegel the younger, in Northern Italy.
Today's expert, Penelope Jackson has written two books on art crime and was about to start a third when lockdown forced her home to Tauranga.
Factum Arte making a copy of Graham Sutherland’s Portrait of Winston Churchill (1954) in 2017
Winston Churchill at the reception of his portrait by Graham Sutherland at Wessminster Hall 30 November 1954
In 2012, Cecilia Giménez, an 82-year-old widow and amateur painter, attempted to restore Ecce Homo, an almost century-old fresco of Jesus crowned with thorns in her local church in Borja, Spain.
Holy Family El Ranadorio Chapel, Spain before and after restoration. Unknown photographer
Joan Howard with mummy mask she found at ancient burial ground, Sakkara. Photo: Steve Ferrier
An Empty Frame: Crimes of Art in New Zealand exhibition with Welcome Morsels (Leonard Nightingale) and copy, Waikato Museum e Whare Taonga o Waikato, 2016-17, Hamilton.
An Empty Frame: Crimes of Art in New Zealand exhibition with Phoenix Rising sculpture, Waikato Museum e Whare Taonga o Waikato, 2016-17, Hamilton
Edward Bullmore Man In The Sun (1962) This painting is kindly reproduced with the permission of Marianna Bullmore.
Penelope's 2916 book, Art Thieves
Penelope's 2019 book, Females in the Frame: women, art, and crime (London: Palgrave Macmillan).
Frolaine Delarue and damaged Portrait of a Young Lady with a Muff (1749) Source: https://www.presseocean.fr/actualite/faits-divers-la-nantaise-qui-naimait-pas-la-peinture-de-francois-boucher-06-11-2015-17492
Konrad Kujau 1992 with Miro forgery. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kujau-archiv_de_001.jpg
