Research: Worcester Art Museum "Then and Now" by Travis Simpkins. Update #20

     -In the first photo, from 1920, early Renaissance works are showcased inside a quiet corner gallery. This room was located on the lower level of the first building addition of the Worcester Art Museum. Revisiting the same spot today, now greatly changed, finds the viewer in the dining area of the Café. The space was opened up, both interior load-bearing walls in the old photo were torn down, and replaced with the necessary big support columns at left.
     -The second "Then and Now" composition shows European Gallery 209, and contrasts pre-renovation 2008 with the present. One of WAM's greatest treasures, Paul Gauguin's "The Brooding Woman", can be seen (in different placements) in both photos.

     -The sketch depicts the Neoclassical marble sculpture of "Cupid Bound (Cupid and the Tortoise)", 1863, by Richard Greenough.

     -This year marks 42 years since the Worcester Art Museum was brazenly robbed. It is a seldom discussed, but very important event in the museum's history. On the afternoon of May 17, 1972, during open hours, two thieves (armed with a concealed revolver) entered the museum and removed four valuable works from the walls of the European Galleries: including Gauguin's "Brooding Woman" and Rembrandt's "Saint Bartholomew". While exiting through the Renaissance Court with the paintings, the thieves drew the weapon and shot the Salisbury door guard when he hindered their haphazard escape. Critically wounded, the guard survived, thanks to First Aid care provided by a visitor (Security can be a thankless and potentially dangerous job. Please, on occasion, let the guards know you appreciate it). Due to the efforts of the FBI, Worcester Police and information provided by other criminals, the four masterpieces were returned to WAM mere weeks later.
     My friend Anthony Amore, Chief Investigator and Director of Security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, has co-written a book on the subject, "Stealing Rembrandts". Full of great insight and detail, his book offers a thoroughly researched account of the 1972 Worcester Art Museum Heist, as well as other daring art thefts.

Cafe. Worcester Art Museum. by Travis Simpkins

European Galleries. Worcester Art Museum. by Travis Simpkins

Cupid Bound. Worcester Art Museum. by Travis Simpkins

FBI and Police- Worcester Art Museum Heist, 1972

Access Magazine- Worcester Art Museum: Travis Simpkins- Avant garde on duty

Access Magazine- Worcester Art Museum: Travis Simpkins- Avant garde on duty

Read the full Access Magazine article HERE

“Still Life with a Candlestick” by Fernand Leger: Stolen on May 20, 2010

Fernand Leger. Still Life with a Candlestick. Stolen 2010. by Travis Simpkins

“Still Life with a Candlestick” by Fernand Leger: Stolen on May 20, 2010

by Travis Simpkins

The Painting:

     In Fernand Leger's 1922 painting, Still Life with a Candlestick, interlocking vertical and horizontal formations insert a rational and corrective element to the Cubist style. Primary colors, combined with sharp black & white areas, create an interesting visual interplay of disassembled form and pattern. Typical of Leger's works from the 1920's, the painting projects a sense of formidable stability to an otherwise mundane subject matter.

The Theft:

     On May 20, 2010, a lone thief pulled off one of the biggest art thefts in history. Five works, valued at upwards of €100m, were stolen from the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris. The filched paintings were well-known works by top-tier artists: Picasso, Modigliani, Matisse, Leger and Braque.

     Lax security and careless blunders were largely to blame for the success of the heist. It was discovered that the paintings were gone around 7:00 a.m. The three guards on duty that night were dumbfounded, telling investigators that they “saw nothing.” A closer look at the museum's security system and the events of that shift painted an unsettling picture. Inspection of the security alarms revealed that the motion detectors that covered the area in which the theft took place had been non-functional for nearly two months, since March 30. The alarms points were malfunctioning, causing false alarms, and the management decided to disable them to alleviate their frustration. Spare parts to make repairs had been ordered, but had not arrived yet.

     On the night of May 20, all of the exterior CCTV cameras were focused towards the roof of the building, leaving the guards blind to street level activity. At about 4:00 a.m., the thief sheared a padlock and smashed through a first floor window to gain entry to the Musée d'Art Moderne. Once inside, the masked “burly” thief passed by an array of interior CCTV cameras, which nicely recorded his nonchalant movements as he perpetrated the crime. The thief spent about 15 minutes removing the five canvases from their frames, and he placed them all together in a large single bundle before exiting from the same window. French investigators theorize that the guards were sleeping, or otherwise distracted, in order to have missed the entire crime playing out on their monitors. The Brigade de Répression du Banditisme believes that the thief acted alone.

     In 2011, a suspect told police that he had thrown the five paintings in the garbage and that they were destroyed by a trash compactor. However, this claim is unsubstantiated.

     The five masterpieces are unsellable and have not been recovered.

French Police investigate the 2010 Paris Museum of Modern Art Heist

The 5 paintings stolen from the Museum of Modern Art in Paris