ART LOST FOREVER – AN UNFATHOMABLE LOSS TO CIVILIZATION – Part 2

Works of art are a statement of and a commentary on the time, place and persons who created them and patronized them. They are the images of the civilization gone bye and help us to understand history. Although we may not realize it, art is a cultural statement that remains to inform and educate future generations of how life once was. This is what makes certain pieces of art more poignant and famous than others, when they come to symbolize a generation or period of time.

Though priceless and invaluable there have been occasions in history when they were not shown the respect they deserved and they were pillaged, plundered, stolen and destroyed. Thus either unknowingly or worse still, knowingly and with a vengeance of intolerance they have been destroyed and left gaping holes in the story of our civilization. So whether it was because of the World Wars or it was the plunder of Muslim fundamentalists of ISIS or Taliban, many precious works of art were lost forever. Accidents, fire, negligence and botched up restoration efforts too have contributed to the tragic loss of priceless artworks.

The wars have had a very detrimental impact on culture and civilization and art which remains an embodiment of both has suffered most and many epics have been lost forever. The invading armies were either ignorant of their true value or were so afraid of their potential to revive a culture that they purposely destroyed them.

When properly taken care of, works of art can persist through millenniums that tell the stories of the times passed to future generations. To preserve cultural heritage from getting destroyed, art galleries and museums have installed a set of rules designed to protect the artworks from thieves, vandals, and accidents. Artworks are often protected by safety ropes that keep the visitors at a reasonable distance. Some pieces are placed inside bulletproof glass boxes.

But, since art venues are trying to keep the sense of accessibility, many works are showcased without these protective items. Instead, they are guarded by a series of guidelines that the visitors must obey. For instance, viewers are often asked to leave their belongings (such as briefcases and umbrellas) at the front desk. Since children are prone to accidents of all kinds, museums demand that they must be accompanied by adults. Food and drinks are not allowed and touching the pieces is strictly forbidden.

There's a reason why museums and galleries ask people not to touch works on display. Human skin carries natural oils and acids that are harmful to artworks. A single touch can initiate permanent changes, darken the paint or corrode metal. But despite these rules, accidents happen and artworks get shattered, punched through or completely destroyed.

In a 5 part series I will be presenting 50 priceless and invaluable works of art which we will never be able to see again because they have been lost forever and this is the second series of 10 such masterpieces:

11. Poppy Flowers - Vincent Van Gogh

Painted by Vincent Van Gogh, Poppy Flowers (also known as Vase and Flowers) was stolen from the Mohammud Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo in August 2010. The painting depicts yellow and red poppy flowers against a dark background and is small in size, measuring just 65 x 54 centimeters. It is believed that Van Gogh painted this work three years before his suicide and that it was created out of Van Gogh’s admiration for Adolphe Montecelli.

With an estimated value of $50 million, it is no surprise that the painting was targeted by thieves. The robbery in 2010 wasn’t the first time the painting had been snatched; it was stolen from the same museum in June of 1977. Following an extensive search operation, it was found ten years later in Kuwait. A few hours after the second theft in 2010, Egyptian officials and police believed that they had discovered the painting at the Cairo International Airport when two suspects attempted to board a plane to Italy. However, this lead proved to be false, and the painting’s location is still unknown.

12. Le pigeon aux petits pois - Pablo Picasso

Painted in 1911, Pablo Picasso’s Le Pigeon aux Petits Pois (The Pigeon with Green Peas) became the target for a large art robbery in May of 2010. Swiped alongside four other masterpieces, Picasso’s painting was stolen from the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. All five works have an estimated value of €100 million.

 

What was unusual about this theft was that it was carried out by one person instead of a gang of thieves, and all that was found at the crime scene was a broken padlock and a single smashed window. The paintings themselves were also removed from their frames rather than being cut. In 2011, a man who stated that he had thrown the painting into a rubbish container following the theft was convicted of the robbery. However, the credibility of this story is doubtful, and the painting is still lost.

13. The Storm on the Sea of Galilee - Rembrandt van Rijn

Another painting snatched in the same robbery as Joannas Vermeer's 'The Concert' was 'The Storm of the Sea of Galilee' by the Dutch golden age painter, Rembrandt van Rijn. This painting is believed to be Rembrandt’s only seascape. It depicts Jesus and the miracle of calming the Sea of Galilee from the Gospel of Mark. Painted in 1633, the painting is also amongst the most valuable missing artworks in the world.

It was previously in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston but was stolen in March 18, 1990 and remains missing. The thieves came disguised as police officers.There have been recent developments related to the theft. In 2013, the FBI claimed that they knew the culprits of the crime and that the theft was carried out by a gang rather than one individual. However, there have been no other announcements about the case since then. There is a $5 million reward for information in relation to the robbery. The museum still displays the empty frames of the stolen paintings.

14. Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence - Caravaggio

One of the most prolific artists in history, Caravaggio's works are among the most valuable in the world, and as a result, there have been a number of attempts by thieves to steal them. One successful theft occurred in 1969 when The Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence (also known as The Adoration) was taken from the Oratory of San Lorenzo in Palermo, Sicily. The painting hung above the altar and was almost six square meters in size. The thief must have removed the painting from its frame due to its size. The Oratory was also pillaged of other artworks, precious woods and benches inlaid with mother of pearl. The location of the Caravaggio is still unknown to this day. It is believed that the local Sicilian Mafia carried out the theft, but this is just speculation. It is also rumored that the painting is hidden abroad or that it was destroyed during the theft or during the 1980 earthquake

Michelangelo Meris da Cparavaggio (1571 - 1610) was an Italian painter active in Rome most if his active artistic career but moved to Naples, Malta and Sicily later. His paintings combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, which had a formative influence on Baroque paintings.

15. The Portrait of a Young Man - Raphael

Snatched by the Nazis in Poland, the Portrait of a Young Man is believed to have been created by Raphael around 1513. It is often cited as one of the most important missing paintings since World War II. While the subject matter is disputed, it is generally regarded to be a self-portrait of Raphael, as the facial features are similar to those depicted in his self-portrait in the fresco 'The School of Athens'. The portrait shows a confident and well-dressed young man, depicted in an early Mannerist style. In 1939, the family patriarch Prince Augustyn Józef Czartoryski rescued a number of pieces from the Czartoryski Museum, including Portrait of a Young Man. Despite being hidden, the collection was discovered by the Gestapo. The portrait was sent to Berlin and then Dresden to become part of the Führer’s Collection at Linz. The last sighting of the painting was in Kraków when it was placed in Wawel Castle. Its current location is still unknown. In 2012, a false report about the painting’s rediscovery was published but was soon ascertained to be a hoax.

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. His other famous works are Transfiguratio, La fornarina, The Marriage of the Virgin and Madonna del Prato.

16. Charing Cross Bridge - Claude Monet

Between 1899 and 1904, Impressionist Claude Monet painted his famous series of Charing Cross Bridge in London, depicting the bridge over various times of the day and from different views. One of these paintings was stolen from Rotterdam as part of the Kunsthal Museum theft in October 2012. Following the theft, a group of Romanian thieves were convicted of the crime. One of the burglars claimed that the Monet painting, as well as a few other artworks that were stolen, was burned in his mother’s stove in order to hide any evidence of the theft. Following a search of the stove, traces of pigment were found, but there was not enough solid evidence to prove his claim. The painting is still listed as missing, and the investigation continues.

The Charing Cross Bridge paintings are scattered in collections all around the world. An unfinished canvas held by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Other versions are at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Harvard Museum of Fine Art, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.

During the years between 1899 and 1905, Monet traveled to London to capture its sights from the fifth-floor balcony of the Savoy Hotel. Monet was captivated by the London fog made markedly worse by the heavy pollution of the Industrial revolution. He painted the Houses of Parliament, Waterloo Bridge and Charing Cross Bridge over and over again to reflect how the architecture changed with season and time of day.

17. Reading Girl in White and Yellow - Henri Matisse

Part of the same Rotterdam art heist in which Monet's Charing Cross Bridge was stolen was Reading Girl in White and Yellow by Frennch artist Henri Matisse. Painted in 1919, the painting depicts a woman deep in thought reading a book, sitting next to a table decorated with flowers. The theft of this artwork and the others stolen in the robbery was one of the biggest in The Netherlands in over a decade. The burglars broke into the museum through an emergency exit and swiped a number of works before fleeing, all within two minutes. The mother of one of the thieves also claims that she was frightened following her son’s arrest, and so she buried the stolen artworks in an abandoned house and a cemetery in the village of Caracliu. She later dug up the paintings and burned them in her stove. The Matisse painting and the other stolen works formed part of the Triton Foundation collection.

Henri Émile Benoît Matisse was a French artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter. He was a leading figure of Fauvism and, along with Pablo Picasso, one of the most influential artists of the modern era. In his paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, Matisse experimented with vivid colors, Pointillist techniques, and reduced, flat shapes. His other famous works include Blue nudes, Woman with a hat and the snail.

18. Francis Bacon - Lucian Freud

Missing since 1988, the portrait of Francis Bacon by Lucian Freud was taken from Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie, possibly by a fan of Bacon or a student. The gallery was full at the time of the theft. Following the robbery, Freud designed his own wanted poster for the stolen portrait, but this didn’t garner any responses. The poster depicts a monochrome version of the painting with ‘wanted’ in red as well as a reward. The stolen painting was created over half a century ago and reveals Freud and Bacon’s close friendship. The portrait was praised for its intimate nature and tension. At the time of the theft, the portrait was on loan from the collection at the Tate for a retrospective on the artist at the Berlin gallery. There has been information regarding the portrait since the theft.

For a quarter of a century, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon were the closest of friends. Their lives were characterized by an intense mutual scrutiny of each other and each other’s work, resulting in some extraordinary paintings and a deep but volatile relationship.

When they weren’t painting, they spent much of their time at the Gargoyle Club (and later the Colony Room) in London’s Soho, drinking, gambling and arguing.

19. The Stone Breakers - Gustave Courbet

Painted in 1849, this classic example of social realism was hailed for its unsentimental depiction of poor laborers, one young and one old, removing rocks from a roadside. Inspired by a chance meeting with two downtrodden workers, French artist Gustave Courbet deliberately broke with convention by capturing the men in gritty detail, from their straining muscles to their tattered and dirty clothing. While it helped launch Courbet’s art career, “The Stone Breakers” was ultimately doomed to become one of the many cultural casualties of World War II. In 1945, the painting was destroyed during an Allied bombing near the city of Dresden, Germany

 

If we look closely at the painting, painted only one year after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote their influential pamphlet, The Communist Manifesto, the artist's concern for the plight of the poor is evident. Here, two figures labor to break and remove stone from a road that is being built. In our age of powerful jackhammers and bulldozers, such work is reserved as punishment perhaps. The man that seems too old and the boy that seems still too young for such back-breaking labor is meant to be an accurate account of the abuse and deprivation that was a common feature of mid-century French rural life.

Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realism movement in ... 'The Painter's Studio', 'The Desperate Man', 'The Wounded Man', 'Woman with a parrot' and 'A Burial at Ornans'.

20. The Buddhas of Bamiyan

Built sometime in the 6th century, this legendary pair of stone Buddhas stood for 1,500 years before falling victim to a cultural purge by the Taliban. The 135 and 175-foot-tall carvings were originally fashioned directly out of a sandstone cliff, and served as Bamiyan’s most spectacular monument during a time when the city flourished as a Silk Road trading hub. While they weathered more than a dozen centuries, several attacks by Muslim emperors and even an invasion by Genghis Kahn, the Buddhas were finally destroyed in March 2001, when the Taliban and their allies in Al Qaeda gave an order condemning idolatrous imagery. Ignoring widespread appeals from the international community, the groups then fired on the statues with antiaircraft guns before blowing them to rubble with dynamite. While the destruction of the Buddhas was condemned as a crime against culture, a number of formerly hidden cave drawings and texts have been discover among the debris, and in 2008 archaeologists unearthed a third, previously undiscovered Buddha statue near the ruins.

 

Bamiyan valley is 230 Km north east of Kabul and the statues were classic example of Gandhar art and an UNESCO world heritage site. The statues consisted of the male Salsal ("light shines through the universe") and the (smaller) female Shamama ("Queen Mother"), as they were called by the locals. The main bodies were hewn directly from the sandstone cliffs, but details were modeled in mud mixed with straw, coated with stucco. This coating, practically all of which wore away long ago, was painted to enhance the expressions of the faces, hands, and folds of the robes; the larger one was painted red and the smaller one was painted multiple colors.

We will continue with our journey through this tragic world of priceless works of art that are lost forever in our 3^rd of the 5 series in the next blog