Stories

Stolen

Heists, looting and the long road home. The name is a nod to these stories. The stories themselves are told plainly, and every one is sourced.

• 20 October 2026The Sisley sold by a dealer fleeing ParisGrégoire Schusterman sold Sisley's view of a port in 1941 as he fled Paris; France returned it to his heirs in 2024.
• 20 October 2026Seated Man with a Cane: a ruling Nahmad contestsA New York judge ordered a 1918 Modigliani returned to the estate of the dealer Oscar Stettiner in 2026; its owner says he will appeal.
• 20 October 2026The Derain that went back to the Gimpel familyA Paris appeals court ordered France in 2020 to return André Derain's Paysage à Cassis to the heirs of the dealer René Gimpel.
• 20 October 2026Pissarro's Hoar-Frost, returned to Gaston Lévy's heirsSeized around 1940 and returned to France in 1947, Pissarro's winter scene was restituted to Gaston Lévy's heirs in 2018.
• 20 October 2026A Pissarro gouache returned to the heirs of Simon BauerConfiscated under Vichy in 1943, Pissarro's La récolte des pois resurfaced at a Paris museum in 2017; courts ordered it returned to Simon Bauer's heirs.
• 20 October 2026A Léger confiscated from Galerie Paul Rosenberg and restituted after the warChristie's provenance says Léger's 1918 Les deux acrobates was confiscated from Paul Rosenberg's Paris gallery during the German occupation and later restituted to him.
• 20 October 2026Turner's Glaucus and Scylla, restituted to the Jaffé heirsSold as Jewish property in Vichy France in 1943, Turner's Glaucus and Scylla was restituted by the Kimbell in 2006 and bought back in 2007.
• 20 October 2026The Oyster Meal returned to the Smidt van Gelder familyTaken from an Arnhem bank vault in 1945, the painting went back to its owner's daughter in 2017 and sold at Sotheby's in 2018.
• 20 October 2026A De Heem returned to the heirs of Jacob LierensSold in a forced Amsterdam auction in 1941, De Heem's still life went back to Jacob Lierens's heirs in 2019.
• 20 October 2026Adele Bloch-Bauer II and its return to the Bloch-Bauer heirsSold to Vienna's state gallery in 1943 after its owner fled, Klimt's 1912 portrait returned to his heirs in 2006.
• 20 October 2026Elisabeth Lederer's portrait, impounded in Vienna and returned in 1948Klimt's portrait of Elisabeth Lederer was impounded in Vienna in 1938, restituted to her brother in 1948 and sold in New York in 2025.
• 20 October 2026A Signac of the Golden Horn returned by FranceA Signac view of the Golden Horn, seized in wartime France, vanished after its 1947 return and was restituted to the owner's heirs in 2018.
• 20 October 2026A Signac from the Gurlitt trove, back with Lévy's heirsProbably seized from Gaston Lévy's country house in 1940, Signac's Quai de Clichy resurfaced in the Gurlitt trove and was returned in 2019.
• 20 October 2026Les Cariatides: a Renoir returned to a dealer's heirsGrégoire Schusterman bought Renoir's Les Cariatides in 1939 and sold it in 1941 as he fled Paris; France returned it to his heirs in 2024.
• 20 October 2026The Titian taken from LongleatThieves took a small Titian from Longleat House in 1995. It turned up in a bag at a bus stop about seven years later.
• 20 October 2026Wheatstacks, the Van Gogh watercolour two families claimedHeirs of two earlier owners disputed a Van Gogh watercolour seized in Paris in 1941, and a confidential settlement let Christie's sell it in 2021.
• 20 October 2026A Kandinsky returned to the Lewenstein heirsA Kandinsky sold at a 1940 Amsterdam auction spent over fifty years on loan in Munich before a German commission backed the Lewenstein heirs' claim.