Renoir bought at a flea market for $7 must go back to museum, judge says
A Renoir painting finished in the 1800s, loaned to a museum, reported stolen in 1951, then bought at a flea market in 2010 has to be returned to the museum, a judge ruled Friday, January 10. The 5½-by-9-inch painting, titled "Landscape on the Banks of the Seine," was bought for $7 at a flea market by a Virginia woman. The estimated value is between $75,000 and $100,000.
Seven famous paintings were stolen from the Kunsthal Museum in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in 2012, including Claude Monet's "Charing Cross Bridge, London." The paintings, in oil and watercolor, include Pablo Picasso's "Harlequin Head," Henri Matisse's "Reading Girl in White and Yellow," Lucian Freud's "Woman with Eyes Closed," and Claude Monet's "Waterloo Bridge," seen here. Works by Gauguin and Meyer de Haan were also taken.
Eight months after Salvador Dali's "Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio" was stolen in a New York gallery, a Greek national was indicted on a grand larceny charge.
In 1473, Hans Memling's "The Last Judgment" was stolen by pirates and became the first documented art theft.
Adam Worth, the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's diabolical character Moriarty, stole "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire," painted by Thomas Gainsborough in 1876.
Seven famous paintings were stolen from the Kunsthal Museum in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in 2012, including Claude Monet's "Charing Cross Bridge, London." The paintings, in oil and watercolor, include Pablo Picasso's "Harlequin Head," Henri Matisse's "Reading Girl in White and Yellow," Lucian Freud's "Woman with Eyes Closed," and Claude Monet's "Waterloo Bridge," seen here. Works by Gauguin and Meyer de Haan were also taken.
Eight months after Salvador Dali's "Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio" was stolen in a New York gallery, 
In 1473, Hans Memling's "The Last Judgment" was stolen by pirates and became the first documented art theft.
Adam Worth, the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's diabolical character Moriarty, stole "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire," painted by Thomas Gainsborough in 1876.
In 1911, Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" was stolen from the Louvre by an Italian who had been a handyman for the museum.
Among their many crimes, the Nazis plundered precious artworks as they gained power during World War II. "Adele Bloch-Bauer I" by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was confiscated from the owner, the widower of the painting's subject, when he fled from Austria.
Many works of art that were taken by the Nazis were never recovered or were only returned after years of legal battles. "Christ Carrying the Cross" by Italian artist Girolamo de' Romani was returned to his family in 2012.
"The Scream" was one of two Edvard Munch paintings that were stolen from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, in 2004.
In 2007, Pablo Picasso's oil painting, ''Portrait of Suzanne Bloch," was taken from the Sao Paulo Museum of Art but was recovered two years later.
A Renoir painting finished in the 1800s, loaned to a museum, reported stolen in 1951, then bought at a flea market in 2010 has to be returned to the museum, a judge ruled Friday.
In 1911, Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" was stolen from the Louvre by an Italian who had been a handyman for the museum.
Among their many crimes, the Nazis plundered precious artworks as they gained power during World War II. "Adele Bloch-Bauer I" by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was confiscated from the owner, the widower of the painting's subject, when he fled from Austria.
Many works of art that were taken by the Nazis were never recovered or were only returned after years of legal battles. "Christ Carrying the Cross" by Italian artist Girolamo de' Romani was returned to his family in 2012.
"The Scream" was one of two Edvard Munch paintings that were stolen from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, in 2004.
In 2007, Pablo Picasso's oil painting, ''Portrait of Suzanne Bloch," was taken from the Sao Paulo Museum of Art but was recovered two years later.
A Renoir painting finished in the 1800s, loaned to a museum, reported stolen in 1951, then bought at a flea market in 2010 has to be returned to the museum, a judge ruled Friday.
The story -- and the painting -- date back to 1879, when impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted "Paysage Bords De Seine," or "Landscape on the Banks of the Seine," which was believed to be for his mistress.
It was later purchased by the Paris art gallery Bernheim-Jeune. Then, in 1926, Herbert L. May, a Renoir collector, bought it from the Paris gallery. In 1937, May's ex-wife, Saidie May, loaned the painting to the Baltimore Museum of Art, which reported it stolen in 1951.
Fast-forward nearly 60 years to a flea market in West Virginia, where a Virginia woman was attracted to a nondescript box holding the painting, along with items like a Paul Bunyan doll and a plastic cow. She paid $7 for the box.
The woman took the painting to the Potomack Company, an Auction House in Alexandria, Virginia, to ask about its value.
A Potomack Company specialist thought it might be an original, and further investigation by the National Gallery of Art in Washington and confirmation by a Renoir expert confirmed the hunch. The painting is valued between $75,000 and $100,000.
The whereabouts of the painting during the six decades it was missing remain unknown.
"Life has so many twists and turns. It has friendships and deaths and divorces and all kinds of chaos, moving, you know changing of occupation," Doreen Bolger, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, told CNN in 2012. "It's very hard to speculate what of those circumstances would cause the painting to change hands."
The Virginia woman, who had requested to be anonymous, felt the painting was rightfully hers.
However, the Baltimore Museum of Art wanted the 5½-by-9-inch Renoir returned.
So the FBI took possession of the painting until the rightful owner could be determined.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in Alexandria decided that the painting must be returned to the Baltimore Museum of Art.
