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This work by Paul Cézanne is one of the few paintings that has the distinction of having been stolen twice.  

To start, we have the questionable circumstances under which Boy in the Red Vest ended up at the world famous Bührle Collection in th first place. Emil Georg Bührle was an arms dealer to the wrong side in World War II. He amassed a huge collection of art during the war, when much art was stolen, or "appropriated" from Jewish families. He built one of the most prestigious private art galleries in the world on shaky moral ground.

Then, in 2008, one of the largest art heists in Europe took place at his museum. Three armed men entered the museum at closing time. Within three minutes they made off with four of the most treasured masterpieces in the collection. Boy in the Red Vest, valued at around $91 million, was the most expensive painting stolen. They also got one each by Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh, but those two were discovered in the backseat of an abandoned car in the parking lot of a nearby mental institution pretty soon after the crime.

Our lad in red however, and another painting by Edgar Degas, remained missing. Boy in the Red Vest wasn't recovered until 2012. It was in Serbia hanging out with a gang of organized criminals. The Degas, unfortunately, is still MIA. 

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Here is what Wikipedia says about The Boy in the Red Vest

The Boy in the Red Vest (Le Garçon au gilet rouge), also known as The Boy in the Red Waistcoat, is an oil painting (Venturi 681) by Paul Cézanne, painted in 1888-1890. It is a fine example of Cézanne's skilled, nuanced, and innovative mature work after 1880.

Check out the full Wikipedia article about The Boy in the Red Vest

Comments (1)

thinkstuff101

Awesome painting. Cezanne was underrated...