The Portrait of the Duke of Wellington
This Day In History: The Mona Lisa was stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, a Louvre employee, on this day 1911. This event caused weeping and gnashing of teeth in France. Thousands visited the Louvre to stare at the blank wall where the Mona Lisa hung. Many left notes, flowers and other gifts.
The thief, Vincenzo Peruggia, was an Italian nationalist who stole the painting to return the work of art to Da Vinci's homeland of Italy. After 2 years, Peruggia was arrested trying to sell the painting to a Florence art dealer.
On the 50th anniversary of the theft of the Mona Lisa, August 21 1961, Francisco Goya's 1812 Portrait of the Duke of Wellington, was stolen from the National Gallery in London, by a thief named Kempton Bunton who had hidden inside the museum before it closed, then waited for the alarm system to be turned off. The portrait had recently been repurchased from American collector Charles Wrightsman for £140,000 ($392,000). Goya's masterpiece was finally recovered on May 21, 1965, at a luggage locker in the New Street railway station in Birmingham.
While the painting was sold to Charles Wrightsman, the British Government decided to buy the painting, for the same sum, to prevent the painting leaving Britain. This enraged Kempton Bunton who was already angry at the British government for their television licence fee. Apparently you have to buy a license in the UK if you want to watch live TV. This license/tax goes to fund the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation).
The police initially assumed that an expert art thief was responsible, however Bunton was an overweight disabled retired bus driver who earned £8 a week pension in 1961. A letter was received by the Reuters news agency requesting a donation of £140,000 to charity to pay for TV licences for poorer people, and demanding an amnesty for the thief, after which the painting would be returned. The request was declined.
In 1965, four years after the theft, Bunton contacted a newspaper, and through a left-luggage office at Birmingham New Street railway station, returned the painting voluntarily. Six weeks later, he also surrendered to the police, who initially discounted him as a suspect, considering it unlikely that a 61-year-old retiree, weighing 240 lb could have carried out the theft.
During his trial, the jury convicted Bunton only of the theft of the frame, which had not been returned. Bunton's defence team, led by Jeremy Hutchinson QC, successfully claimed that Bunton never wanted to keep the painting, which meant he could not be convicted of stealing it. Bunton was sentenced to three months in prison.
The theft entered popular culture, with the 1962 James Bond film, Dr. No, showing the painting displayed in Dr. No's lair.
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