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| Mademoiselle Manthey. Paul Gauguin. Worcester Art Museum. by Travis Simpkins |
Paul
Gauguin's “Portrait of Mademoiselle Manthey”: Stolen and Stored
Away
A
Visual Footnote to the 1972 Worcester Art Museum Heist
by Travis Simpkins
Paul Gauguin's 1884 pastel Portrait
of Mademoiselle Manthey has long-held a certain mystique in my
eyes. I have worked at the Worcester Art Museum for 16 years, and
I've only seen it twice. Like most delicate works on paper,
Mademoiselle Manthey rests in storage limbo, seldom presenting
herself to public view. There is nothing truly enigmatic about the
subject herself: the pretty young daughter of the consul representing
Norway and Sweden in Rouen and Le Havre during the 1880's, whose
family owned several works by Gauguin. The visual spell cast by the
Portrait of Mademoiselle Manthey is contained within it's
composition and feel; simple and harmonious. Gauguin's
straightforward view catches the young lady's glance in an unguarded
moment of daydreaming. The short strokes and vertical hatchings of
pure color add depth and implications of texture, and the diagonal
breaks of the sloping shoulders and hat brim serve to enliven the
picture plane. It is a quiet and elegant masterpiece. However, when
Mademoiselle Manthey was targeted by thieves four decades ago,
these lovely aesthetic elements received no consideration when
calculating it's worth.
The Worcester Art Museum Heist on May
17, 1972 bore no resemblance to the daring robberies presented in
Hollywood films. The stolen art was not hand-picked by an art-loving
wealthy connoisseur, the aesthetics and beauty of the paintings meant
nothing to those taking them, the pieces were not destined for a
luxurious villa, there was no stealthy night-time repel through laser
beams, the thieves were not sophisticated or clever and their plan
did not play out in seamless fashion.
When Florian “Al” Monday, a petty
crook and self-styled art enthusiast, selected the four works he
planned to steal from the Worcester Art Museum, money was his sole
motive. Disregarding his own personal taste (he has a passion for
Renoir), Monday selected pieces from the collection that he thought
were the most valuable: Rembrandt's Saint Bartholomew,
Gauguin's Brooding Woman and Mademoiselle Manthey and
Picasso's Mother and Child by a Fountain. He figured that even
with a black market value of 10%, he still stood to profit a great
deal from selling the filched paintings. The heist was planned for
the middle of the day, during open hours. More than half of
documented art thefts are committed when museums are open, for the
simple fact that the building perimeter has already been breached.
Monday's plan was further aided by proximity and convenience, in that
all four works were located just one level up from the front door and
that the latter two works were small and portable.
On the afternoon of May 17, 1972, Al
Monday sent two dim-witted young thieves, in their early 20's, into
the Worcester Art Museum with a revolver (loaded with a single
bullet). The thieves wore matching blue jackets, with the supposition
that they'd appear to be employees when removing the works from the
walls. After flirting with two high school girls in the galleries,
the young thugs easily bagged the four masterpieces and sauntered
towards the exit. When an elderly security guard tried to stop them,
they drew their weapon and shot him. Critically wounded, the guard
survived thanks to first aid provided by a visitor. The four
paintings were driven away in a waiting station wagon (with Gauguin's
Brooding Woman ignorantly and precariously placed on the roof
rack of the car).
In reality, even if the plan had
worked perfectly and no one had been hurt, Monday never stood a
chance of selling the well-known stolen paintings. However, with the
added charge of shooting the guard, the crime was elevated to a whole
new level of scrutiny. Knowing the authorities would be focusing on
him, Monday hid the four paintings in his drop-ceiling at first.
Figuring that wasn't the best place to conceal them, he then placed
the paintings in a steamer trunk and brought them to a hayloft at the
contaminated Picillo Pig Farm in Rhode Island. Along the way, because
he felt it was weighing him down, he removed the frame from the
Rembrandt and tossed it in the Blackstone River. In the end, two
other criminals, seeking reductions in pending sentences,
strong-armed and forced Monday into giving up the stolen WAM pieces
so that they might gain favor with the court. (Please read Anthony
Amore's book, “Stealing Rembrandts,” for a full, well-documented
account of the 1972 WAM Heist events).
The four masterpieces were returned to
the Worcester Art Museum a few weeks after they were stolen. Ten
years later, Picasso's
Mother and Child by a Fountain was lost
to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in a legal battle. Gauguin's
Portrait of Mademoiselle Manthey did not return to permanent
view for long, and was soon relegated to storage (as are most works
on paper these days), only put on view at brief intervals to
compliment changing exhibitions. Of the four works stolen and
returned to the Worcester Art Museum in 1972, only two can be
regularly seen by visitors today: Rembrandt's
Saint Bartholomew
and Paul Gauguin's
Brooding Woman. Both are nicely featured in
updated galleries, and are well worth the trip.
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| Art Thieves: 1972 Worcester Art Museum Heist |
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| Security Guard Philip J. Evans was shot during the 1972 WAM Heist |
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| FBI and Police with the recovered 1972 WAM Heist Paintings |
