According to new research from the Art Loss Register, Pablo Picasso has the most works that are stolen. He currently has 1,147 paintings registered and most recently his 1939 artwork “Woman’s Head” was taken from the Athens’ National Gallery in Greece. The Art Loss Register is the world’s largest privately managed international database and on a lighter note they have been involved in the recovery of around 29 works by Picasso.
Here below is the other artists that were on the list and the number of artworks that were stolen:
Nick Lawrence, 537
Marc Chagall, 516
Karel Appel, 505
Salvador Dali, 505
Joan Miro, 478
David Levine, 343
Andy Warhol, 343
Rembrandt, 337
Peter Reinicke, 336
So you can see the big difference in numbers between Picasso and Lawrence even to Reinicke and that would be the reason why Picasso would be the top stolen artist.
Some notable works that were stolen from some of the artists on the list, Marc Chagall’s 1941 Oil Canvas; “Study for Over Vitebsk” was taken from the New York’s Jewish Museum in 2001. “Dove with Green Peas” by Picasso in 2010, was taken in Paris at the Museum of Modern Art. Rembrandt’s “The Child with a Soap Bubble” was stolen from the Draguignan Museum in southeastern France. Andy Warhol’s painting of Ali, in September of 2009 was taken in a raid on a LA home in 2009 and a Salvador Dali sketch was stolen from a house in Sherborn, Dorset.
While the Art Loss Register had compiled a list of most artist’s works that are stolen and they also revealed that 40 percent of art thefts occurred in Britain and only 16 percent were in America. The reasoning behind art thefts is simple money of course and art can be use as a currency in the underworld believe it or not for drugs or guns. Britain is also a vulnerable spot for two reasons the high rise of metal (metal sculptures are taken and used as scrap metal then sold for cash) and valuable works have been stolen to order.
Art theft sadly is a problem and the major thing is a question that arises what if the artwork is destroyed? Bad enough it is taken from someone and a museum but if it’s destroyed then well we all lose out.
Sources:
Daily Mail, Rob Cooper, “Picasso is the most stolen artist in the world with more than 1,000 of his pieces of work missing”
Art Loss Register