WORLD'S ART MYSTERY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 130, 2 June 1923, Page 19

WORLD'S ART MYSTERY.

■ MARKET FOR FAMOUS STOLEN PICTURES. The recent escapade of picture thieves, vhereby two valuable Galnsboroughs were pirited away from Benham Park, near s'ewbury, Is but one chapter In a long and nteresting story. Mr. Henry C. Button, the victimised iwner, thus finds himself in the company f the Earl of Jersey, from whose seat .near Bicester, thousands of pounds worth of art xcasures were stolen six months ago. Rembrandt'B "St. Paul ln Prison" vanished from the Stuttgart Public Art Gallery, and a famous Mnrillo, purloined from Milan Cathedral, was sold by the thieves in New York for £501 The buyer generously sent lt back to its lawful owners and refused to accept the £2000 reward offered for recovery. Two very famous pictures, with soma others, were stolen from the Wertheimer Collection in Park Lane, ln February, 190 T. These were "The Hon. Mrs. Charles Yorke," by Reynolds, and "Nancy Parsons," by Gainsborough, the estimated value being then 20,000 guineas. Many readers will remember how the "Mona Lisa" was stolen from the Louvre, In Paris, as "an act of vengeance," socalled, by a would-be patriotic Italian. When the famous da Vinci was "returned" by him, after his arrest, he declared that he had fallen In love with the womanly >eauty pictured there. All these exploits are ontdone by the story of the stolen "Duchess of Gainsborough"—again a Gainsborough masterpiece. Here the prince of cracksmen performed lis highest stroke. Gainsborough had exlibited tho "Duchess" at the Royal icademy of Just 14*0 years ago. Five years ater he died, and the canvas then seems :o have been-lost sight of. There was a blank of- seventy-five rears, bringing ns down to 1841, when the work was found ln the possession of a Mrs. Maglnnis, who had formerly kept a Dames' School. This lady, finding that the full-length portrait would not fit into the space over her mantel-shelf, cut it down/to the required size, sacrificing nearly half. But It was no sacrifice to her to sell lt, as she did to Bentley, the dealer, for £58. The latter in turn asked £70 for it, and took £60 from a collector. In due time the picture appeared at Christie's, and the sight of it, with an opening bid of 1000 guineas, Immediately challenged by 3000, brought forth a tempest of resounding cheers. The hammer fell at 10,100 guineas. On May 6, 1870, the "Duchess" was "hung" at Agnew's Galleries. On the night of the 26th it was stolen and taken t» America. In their handiwork the burglars exhibited efforts worthy of a better causa. There were three of them; one, very probably being ' the master-mind, Adam Wirth, alias Harry Raymond and a hundred other names, including the "Napoleon of Crime." These three, at dead of night, found themselves in Old Bond Street, shadowing the policeman on beat to a safe distance. One then kept watch. Another, mounting the shoulders of the third, clambered op to the gallery window, wliich he forced. The next moment a police inspector passed, but the hidden watcher soon whispered an "all clear." Whipping out a doubleedged knife, the ringleader soon had the canvas cut from Its frame and rolled up, and away, leaving his broken knlfe-blado behind. At last, ruined in health and broken In fortune, "Napoleon" made a compound with the owners, ami, for a certain sumsaid to be about £2000—handed over, through rinkerton's detectives, to Scotland Yard the long-lost lady. He was a luxurious person, with expensive tastes. His father a Russian Pole, nd his mother a German Jewess, Wirth ras born near Boston, Mass., U.S.A. At 1 he began as a scallywag and tramp. !ien joined (and deserted) several regllents, robbing railway stations in beiveen. He literally cleared out the Bos.n Bank, and to do so bought adjoining remises, pulled down walls, and pierced ie iron-plated strong-room. Fortune in the end, of course, turned jainst him, and the self-styled monarch ' criminals got eventually into very low ater. He died, without a crony by his de, on January S, 1002, in a mean lodgg near Regent's Park, and was buried in public grave.