The Art Loss Register

In the closing months of 2021, the ALR helped locate six missing artworks stolen from a Viennese private collection after they had been put into storage following the owner’s death.

The ALR had been asked to check a Chinese bronze dining vessel from the Shang period (Image 1) and recognised that it was one of the stolen pieces. The ALR alerted the police to its whereabouts
with surprising results; the searcher who had submitted the item to be checked turned out to be the perpetrator responsible for the theft!

Upon searching the thief’s house not only were the other missing items discovered but also many more works of art which had been stolen from the storage facility.

Read more on the story here:
https://www.derstandard.de/story/2000132113899/landeskriminalamt-deckt-diebstahl-aus-kunstdepot-auf

Last night the ALR hosted Yaam at Treasure House Fair!

We have been working with the fair since its inception in 2023, checking works exhibited against our database alongside the vetting committees to ensure that all works displayed at the fair can be purchased with good legal title.

ALR Recovery!
Van Kessel the Elder and Abraham Williemsens ‘Interior of a Collector’s Cabinet: An Allegory of Sight’ c.1660

The painting was stolen in September 2020 from a private residence in Ontario, Canada.

After immediately reporting the theft the police, the painting was also registered with the ALR by the victim. AXA XL paid on the ensuing insurance claim and thus secured the right to claim the stolen painting if it ever reappeared.

In October 2023, the painting was identified when Sotheby’s checked the item against the ALR database as part of their standard due diligence process. The painting had been offered to Sotheby’s with detailed cataloguing and provenance, alongside a claim that the consignor had bought it from a 2015 sale in Switzerland, the same sale in fact at which the theft victim themselves had purchased the work. The ALR team immediately matched it to the 2020 registration of the stolen painting, and Sotheby’s was informed of the item’s stolen status.

The potential consignor then went silent for over a year. Eventually the ALR, representing the insurer, was able to secure a response from him and the recovery of the painting. The painting was shipped to Sotheby’s New York in August 2025 and sold for just under US$90,000, over twice its high estimate at the beginning of this year.

This recovery demonstrates not only the benefit of registering stolen works with our database, but also the great value of due diligence checks carried out by the art market. We are grateful to Sotheby’s for their diligence and assistance in this case, which enabled the recovery of this picture and a very successful subsequent sale for the benefit of the insurer.

Art Basel is this week! Art Basel

Please stop by the ALR stand in the entrance hall and say hi if you are at the fair this week

We were delighted to share our views in Art Basel’s ‘Art Market Report: The Modern masters are back’, discussing the growing importance of due diligence checks and provenance to collectors in today’s market - read through the link in our bio.

Happy International Tea day!!! 🫖

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Here is a selection of our favourite tea themed ALR registrations.

All these items are registered on th ALR database and included in our going checks of the international art markets.

**STILL MISSING**

16 years ago today, a collection of 5 works with an estimated value exceeding 100 million euros was stolen from The Museum of Modern Art, Paris. Referred to by French outlets as ‘Spiderman’, Vjeran Tomic tore away works by Modiglini, Matisse, Picasso, Braque, and Leger in the early hours of May 20th, 2010.

In court, Tomic explained that it was a theft-for-hire scheme devised by Parisian gallerist, Michel Corvez. Although he was commissioned only for Leger’s Still Life with Candlestick, Tomic made off with the other works simply because he could; he had avoided tripping any alarms, moving with complete freedom in the night.

Today, the whereabouts of the five works is unknown. A third accomplice to the operation, watch-dealer Yonathan Birn, claims to have destroyed all five works after police raided his store. Many doubt this conclusion, including Birn’s own wife and Tomic.

All 5 artworks are included on the ALR database and are included in our ongoing checks against the market.

List of stolen works :
1.Amadeo Modigliani, ‘Woman with a Fan’ 1919
2.Henri Matisse, ‘Pastoral’ 1906
3.Pablo Picasso, ‘Pigeon with Peas’ 1911
4.Georges Braque, ‘Olive Tree near Estaque’ 1906
5.Fernand Leger, ‘Still Life with Candlestick’ 1922

A huge thank you to for a great result last night on this recovery!

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Pablo Picasso, ‘L’Atelier’, 1955

Whitworth Art Gallery Theft: Three Artworks Stolen - All Recovered.

In the early hours of 27th April 2003, three works by Picasso, Gauguin and Van Gogh were stolen from Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery. The next day, following a telephone tip-off, they were recovered in a public lavatory on the edge of a small park, 200 metres away.

No one has ever been charged over the theft. The thief bypassed the gallery’s security system and removed the fragile watercolours from their frames to roll them up into a cardboard tube. This was later abandoned lent up against the closed lavatory building. Along with the recovered paintings was a note saying that “the intention was not to steal only to highlight the woeful security”.

The paintings had been left next to sodden leaves and litter on an extremely rainy day, so unsurprisingly the Van Gogh, ‘Fortifications of Paris with Horses’ watercolour suffered damage, with a 12cm tear to its right side, creasing and minor paint losses - now restored.

The gallery has since upgraded its security systems and now stands on par with that of national museums. The theft demonstrates a constant anxiety for regional museums who must balance budgeting for their collections against security measures.

All three items were immediately registered on the Art Loss Register database on the day of the theft to ensure they were not moved quickly through the market.

Artworks:

- Pablo Picasso, ‘Poverty’, 1903
- Paul Gauguin, ‘Tahitian Landscape’, 1891-93
- Vincent van Gogh, ‘The Fortifications of Paris with Houses’, 1878

**WE ARE HIRING**

We are looking for an Associate to join our Recoveries team.

The successful applicant will join the team in reviewing artworks and cultural property as part of the due diligence process we carry out for clients. This involves researching issues relating to all types of claims such as theft, looting, colonialisation, and civil disputes. They will also be trained in the active pursuit of claims, assisting claimants seeking to recover their property. Such claimants can include insurers, private individuals, museums, businesses, and nation states.

Alongside this, our Associate will also help to manage the ALR’s database, assisting clients with the submission process and ensuring the quality of registrations.

Candidates must have or intend to gain the right to work in the UK. For the full job spec please see the link in our bio.

To apply to this role please submit your CV and a cover letter of no more than 300 words to [email protected] by 10:00am BST on Monday 11th May.

*RECOVERED*
Portrait of Lt.-Col. Hon. Francis Wheler Hood
Henry Bone R.A. (Truro 1755-1834 London).

The Henry Bone painting was stolen during a burglary from a private residence in Hampshire in 2008. The theft bulletin – including several high value artworks and antiques worth more than £50,000 – was circulated by Hampshire Constabulary to UK law enforcement and so registered on the ALR database.

In April 2016 the painting was brought to the ALR office by a local dealer from Hatton Garden in order to be searched against the ALR database. The painting was still in its original frame, and it appeared that the thieves had only removed the plaque with the artist’s name.

The searcher was unable to prove he had good title to this work, while he had acquired the painting less than a year prior to his search for a low value. After he agreed to sign a letter of release, the ALR arranged for the painting to be offered for sale in an upcoming auction on behalf of the insurers of the original loss. It was sold successfully in October 2018 for the benefit of the insurers.

The enamel portrait of Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. Francis Wheler Hood is after an original by Thomas Stewardson, now at Loders Hall in Dorset. A pencil drawing by Bone of the same subject and dimensions is also at the National Portrait Gallery, London (see: NPG D17676).

Lt.-Col. Hood, who is portrayed in this painting, belonged to the 3rd Foot Guards and died in the Napoleonic Wars at the Affair of Aire on 2nd March 1814.