The National Museum, Gdańsk
A painting by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, one of Poland’s most wanted stolen paintings, has been recovered in the Netherlands after nearly fifty years.
Arthur Brand, a specialist in stolen art (who I have mentioned before in relation to a stolen Van Gogh and the British Museum’s Higgs theft), tracked down the stolen painting to the city of Gouda. Titled Woman Carrying the Embers, the recovered work is a rather small painting, showing one of the artist’s typical peasant subjects: a woman with a bucket of water in one hand and a pair of tongs holding fireplace embers in the other. Like many of his peasant scenes, Brueghel created the work as a pictorial representation of a Dutch proverb. In a warning against deceitful individuals, Woman Carrying the Embers conveys the message, “Never believe a person who carries water in the one hand and fire in the other”. Estimates indicate that Brueghel created this work around 1626. The painting was originally at the National Museum in Gdańsk, Poland between 1944 and 1974. As if written for a heist movie, the National Museum discovered that the painting was missing when a janitor accidentally knocked the painting off the wall and revealed that someone had replaced the actual painting with a replica image. Only one other work was found to be missing, a crucifixion scene sketch by Anthony van Dyck. After the Polish authorities abandoned their initial investigations, various rumors and conspiracy theories began circulating, including that the communist Polish security services had had a hand in the painting’s theft.
Brand was able to track the stolen Brueghel to Gouda after reading an article in the Dutch art and antiques magazine Vind. One of the writers, John Brozius, commented on an exhibition at the Museum Gouda featuring a work similar to the stolen painting. Brueghel created six paintings of the same subject, which was not unusual for the artist. However, Brand claims to have read this review and decided to go to Gouda to confirm his suspicions. The Museum Gouda had secured the painting for the exhibition as a loan from a private collector. Both the owners and the museum claim that they were unaware that the painting had been previously stolen and were acting in good faith. Dutch authorities are now investigating how the work wound up in the Netherlands, while Poland has requested the work be returned to Gdańsk. No one has given an estimate as to the value of the painting. In the past, Brueghel the Younger’s work has sold at auction for millions. However, both the small size of the painting and its backstory complicate any appraisal made by a specialist.