Le Jardin by Matisse finally gets to go home.

In the wee hours of May 11th, 1987 a burglar using a sledgehammer, broke into the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm and made off with this painting by Matisse. The thief tried several times to sell the painting back to the museum for huge sums of money, but the museum refused, and the painting ended up in the hands of a private collector in Poland. 

Twenty years later, when the Polish collector asked an English art dealer to sell the painting for him, the dealer ran it through the Art Loss Register, a database of missing artworks. Bingo. It came up stolen. In 2013, another six years of negotiations later, the painting was finally returned. 

Sweden’s statute of limitations for art theft expire after ten years so the thief is in the clear!

The Swedish museum is thrilled. The Polish client is understandably not so happy. He is not suspected of being involved in the theft, but his collection is missing a Matisse.

For those interested in art appraisals, this particular Matisse was valued at $1 million at the time of its recovery.