Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent Will Star in an Upcoming Film About an Epic Real-Life Art Heist

In the summer of 1961, a man snuck into the National
Gallery in London through an open window in the men’s bathroom and
snatched Francisco Goya’s Portrait of the Duke of
Wellington from its easel display. He then slipped back out
the window, committing the first-ever theft from the museum, a
heist that captivated England for years.

Now, the story is being dramatized in the upcoming film The Duke,
directed by Roger Michell and starring Oscar winners Helen Mirren
and Jim Broadbent. The film, which is set to begin shooting in
January, will follow the life story of the man who was eventually
revealed as the thief.

The painting, which had only been on view for 19 days when it
was boosted, made headlines when it was acquired because a New York
businessman had attempted to buy the work at auction, but
ultimately allowed the London museum to keep it and prevent the
“national treasure” from being exported to America.

After the heist, newspapers received an increasingly bizarre
series of letters, supposedly written by the thief. They claimed
that the theft was “an attempt to pick the pockets of those who
love art more than charity… the picture is not and will not be for
sale, it is for ransom,” priced at £140,000.

Another letter claimed that the thief’s “sole object” was to set
up a charity so that elderly and poor people, who are “neglected in
an affluent society,” wouldn’t have to pay for television
licenses.

The mystery continued for years, until a final letter announced
that “Goya’s Wellington is safe” and that the whole
thing had been “an adventurous prank” that had gone too far. The
thief was now ready to “return the damn thing.”

A luggage tag was sent to a local newspaper, leading to the
painting, which was found safe and sound in a locker. A former taxi
driver named Kempton Bunton turned himself in to the authorities.
Bunton was eventually cleared of all but one charge and the
incident helped lead to the creation of the Theft Act of 1968,
which made it a crime to steal publicly displayed objects.

In an even stranger twist, unsealed police documents made public in 2012 revealed
that the actual burglar was Bunton’s son, John, who was 20 years
old at the time and had carried out his father’s plan.

The upcoming film isn’t the first time the Duke’s
strange history has been projected onto the big screen. In 1962,
when the painting was still missing, the first film in the James
Bond saga, Dr. No, featured the portrait on display
in a villain’s lair. The crime saga was also dramatized in the 2016
book The Duke of
Wellington, Kidnapped!: The Incredible True Story of the Art Heist
That Shocked a Nation. 

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