Two Turners taken from Frankfurt

On 28 July 1994, two paintings by J. M. W. Turner were stolen from the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt. The gallery was showing “Goethe and the Visual Arts”. Tate, the British national collection of art, had lent the Turners to it. A Friedrich lent by the Hamburger Kunsthalle was taken too. The Guardian reports that the thieves hid in the building at closing time, that the alarm was switched off and that the night watchman was tied up. At the trial, The Art Newspaper reported, a freight lift was used and a guard was knocked out.

The two Turners were a pair about the Flood: Shade and Darkness – the Evening of the Deluge and Light and Colour (Goethe’s Theory) – the Morning after the Deluge. Turner showed them at the Royal Academy in 1843. They came to the nation in the Turner Bequest, accepted in 1856. They were insured for 12 million pounds each. The BBC reports that insurers paid the full 24 million pounds. Title to the paintings passed to the insurers, and Tate kept the first option to buy them back if they were found.

Police made arrests in 1995. On 5 February 1999 a Frankfurt court convicted three men, according to The Art Newspaper. Stephan Weiss, aged 31 and called the ringleader of the thieves, received 11 years. Yusef Tuerk received 8 years. Stefan Hoefler received two and a half years. The Art Newspaper says he was convicted of helping to sell the paintings; the BBC and The Telegraph call the third man the getaway driver, and The Telegraph gives the sentences as between 3 and 11 years. Two other defendants were acquitted. The three men did not hold the paintings. The press reports that they did not name whoever ordered the theft, and that this organiser was never convicted.

In 1998 Tate bought legal title back from the insurers for about 8 million pounds. Six sources give that figure; The Telegraph gives 7 million. The Independent says the deal was struck in June 1998.

In 1999 a Frankfurt lawyer, Edgar Liebrucks, offered to help. The Guardian dates his letter to October 1999 and says he asked for 3.1 million pounds. The Art Newspaper puts his first offer in July 1999. He was not charged, and told the BBC that German prosecutors had given him immunity. The Guardian and The Art Newspaper report that German prosecutors, the Metropolitan Police and a secret High Court hearing on 28 April 2000 approved the payments. The judge found them lawful and in the public interest. Tate says Shade and Darkness was recovered on 19 July 2000, and it kept this secret so as not to endanger the second painting. Sandy Nairne, then Tate’s Director of Programmes, ran the effort. Tate says Light and Colour was recovered in Germany on 16 December 2002 and returned to Britain two days later. Tate’s director, Sir Nicholas Serota, said Tate had not paid the thieves in any sense.

Both paintings went on show at Tate Britain on 8 January 2003, without their original frames and otherwise in good condition. Tate’s 2005 release says 17 million pounds of the insurance money remained in its favour. The Friedrich went back to Hamburg on 28 August 2003, and the Kunsthalle says no money was paid. Both Turners are in the Tate collection. The sources consulted do not say where they hang now.