Estimated value of Portrait of a Lady by Gustav Klimt was $66 million--assuming that anyone could ever find it. The painting vanished 23 years ago from the gallery in Piacenza, Italy where it hung. Recently, a gallery worker found it inside one of the walls.
On Feb. 22, 1997, thieves broke into the gallery through a skylight. It is likely that they discovered that the painting was too large to get out through the skylight and so decided to store it on site. The BBC reports:
That was until a worker clearing ivy from the wall of the gallery where it was stolen stumbled on a metal panel.
Behind it lay a recess, within which was a black bag containing what appeared to be the missing painting.
Checks are still being carried out on the recovered work, which has been handed to police.
But gallery director Massimo Ferrari is confident the original has been found, because it has the same stamps and sealing wax on the back of the painting.
Police are investigating whether the thieves had left the painting hidden with the aim of removing it when worldwide media attention moved away from one of the most notorious art thefts in years.
-via Messy Nessy Chic | Photo: Yorck Project
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Wow I bet Portrait of a Lady is a new mistery!! Gonna search more about this stolen painting. I really love Gustav Klimt, even ordered one of his reproductions from https://www.1st-art-gallery.com. So now I'm curious who is this woman on the painting?!
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