While some authorities are using AI to track down stolen art, others are using older techniques to help them find pieces that have been lost… really old techniques.
“A 17th-century painting by Dutch artist Willem Cornelisz Duyster, titled Un Buveur (The Drinker) and stolen in 1940 from the Orléans museum, was located last month at an auction house in Switzerland,” ARTnews reported on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
The piece, which is now being returned to the museum, according to Le Journal de l’Art, was located thanks to “wanted” posters, like the ones that might have been seen back in the Old West.
The Campaign Aims To Find WWII-Era Looted Artworks
The Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans in France “was able to find the missing painting thanks to a recent campaign that uses a bit of humor to spread awareness about some 350 artworks that were plundered from the Musée Paul Fourché, an annex of the Beaux-Arts museum, after the city was attacked by Nazis in June 1940,” according to ARTnews. “It is believed people on both sides of the conflict took advantage of the opportunity to ransack the museum.”
The museum’s stolen art campaign involved releasing “wanted” posters that were made to look like old notices that were used to identify and track down criminals. Along with large yellow text, the posters included black-and-white images of the artwork that the museum was hoping to locate.
The posters were then shared on the museum’s website and in a digital catalog, as well as on social media and news platforms. The result was just was those behind the campaign were hoping for thanks to one man who decided to take the next step in the initiative.
One Man Spent His Free Time Looking for the ‘Wanted’ Art
The Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans “wanted” posters have had the desired result and led to the recovery of Duyster’s Un Buveur, which is a painting of man in a large hat who is seen holding an empty glass out in front of him while looking out at the viewer.
A local man decided to use his free time to look for the pieces that were featured in the campaign, with museum director Olivia Voisin telling ARTnews, “He wanted to help us, and that was the goal of the campaign: that these searches are shared or collective.”
The man eventually spotted Un Buveur “in a catalog for an October 17 sale at the Gloggner auction house in Lucerne,” ARTnews explains, while noting that it was “thought to be a study of the original.” After the museum was notified about the painting’s location, Voisin says the auction house “was very transparent” as the situation was addressed.
When the artwork’s owner — who had bought it in the 1990s from an auction house in London — was shown that images of both the original piece and the one in question were the same, Voisin says, “He immediately proposed to restitute the painting. It was pretty natural for him to return it, because he felt that he had been able to enjoy it for 35 years, and it was time for it to go home.”
Stolen Art ‘Wanted’ Posters Leads to Discovery of Missing 17th-Century Painting