• The Gotha Art Heist

  • Mar 10 2025
  • Length: 2 mins
  • Podcast

The Gotha Art Heist

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  • Summary

  • On the night of December 14, 1979, a group of unidentified individuals executed a daring art heist at Friedenstein Castle, resulting in the theft of five valuable paintings. The stolen artworks included: "Portrait of an Unknown Gentleman with a Hat" by Frans Hals "Country Road with Farm Cart and Cows" attributed to Jan Brueghel the Elder "Self-Portrait with Sunflower" by Anthonis van Dyck (Copy; the original is privately owned by the Duke of Westminster) "Old Man" by Ferdinand Bol (Copy after Rembrandt) "Saint Catherine" by Hans Holbein the Elder The stolen paintings were displayed in various rooms of the museum located within Friedenstein Castle. They were taken along with their corresponding frames, leaving only black and white photographs as evidence of their existence. Prior to the theft, a color photograph had been taken of "Self-Portrait with Sunflower," but it was only rediscovered in the late 2000s during research by the television magazine "ttt – titel, thesen, temperamente." At the time, the value of the stolen paintings was estimated to be around five million East German Marks. The museum's installed alarm system was not yet operational at the time of the break-in. The theft was believed to have been carried out around 2 a.m., as indicated by temperature drop data recorded by a climate recorder. The circumstances of the theft, which suggested a deliberate selection of the stolen artworks, pointed to the possibility of an organized heist. The manufacturing process of a found climbing iron and the alloy of the steel used in it indicated, according to the investigations at that time, that the climbing irons were not produced in East Germany. Potential suspects at the time included the high-wire artists known as the Geschwister Weisheit, who were based in Gotha, as well as museum staff, the Sachsen-Coburg and Gotha royal family, and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, SED economic functionary Alexander Schalck. The statute of limitations for the claim of return expired in December 2009, prompting the city of Gotha and the museum to hope for new leads regarding the whereabouts of the stolen paintings. The current value of the artworks is estimated to be around 50 million euros. In December 2019, it was revealed th...
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