aixcentric

It was back in August 1961, a long-forgotten incident, and thanks to local historian Alain Paire for sending details of this fascinating story.

The thieves climbed the garden walls then up the decorative ironwork of the façade to reach the first floor paintings.

The town authorities were trying to put Aix on the map, artistically and for tourists, and had mounted an ambitious series of exhibitions – Van Gogh, Matisse and now Cézanne.

But security standards were lapse at the time: overnight, the gendarme on the ground floor slept through the whole thing and the night guard upstairs ‘didn’t react’ while eight paintings were taken off their cords and vanished into the night.

The Card Players from the Louvre was one of the stolen works. (A similar version sold for 250m$ last year.)

Eventually insurance payments had to be made to the various museums and individuals who had lent their works…but in the meantime, negotiations were going on between the thieves and the Ministry of Culture and the police.  ‘Give us the money or we destroy the paintings,’ was the threat.

Some deal  was reached: there was a phone call on 11 April 1962 telling the police to look for a green Peugeot 404 in a road near La Joliette.  It had been stolen the previous week and contained the 8 missing paintings, mainly unharmed.

Finally the portrait of Rose Cézanne could be returned to the gallery in St Louis.

In fact it was a massively embarrassing episode for Aix and it took years before large exhibitions were mounted again.

If you click the link, you will find Alain Paire’s article which has  much more detail and the double-page spread on the subject from yesterday’s La Provence.  http://www.galerie-alain-paire.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=368:aout-1961-huit-toiles-de-cezanne-volees-au-pavillon-de-vendome-daix-en-provence-&catid=15:paul-cezanne&Itemid=100006

Especially enjoyable are the contemporary photos of the exhibition organisers happily unpacking the Cézannes on the sunny lawn outside the Pavillon de Vendome before the exhibition….and the picture of the lady curator posing in floral flock next to the empty gaps where the masterpieces had been.

But one thing it doesn’t tell us – what happened to the thieves?

I still don’t know but there is an interesting post-script which I stumbled across while trying to find out.  Once ‘The Artist’s Sister’ was returned to St Louis, the restorers were pleased to find no damage when it was unrolled – but while removing glue on the back of the canvas, found another painting.  ‘It’s the biggest thing that happened to the St Louis art museum in a long time,’ said the director at the time.  They placed the paintings back-to-back in a swivel-frame so people could see both.  Story here: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19631207&id=WVdQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7FYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7048,1141171

This is intriguing!  Only last week I posted the story of two drawings being found behind Cézannes at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.  https://aixcentric.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=5034&action=edit&message=10

I wouldn’t be surprised if curators worldwide are now peering hopefully behind their masterpieces.

At least some good came out of the great art heist of Aix back in 1961.