In a Twist, Two Serial Art Thieves Confess to Having Hidden Klimt’s ‘Portrait of a Lady’ Inside a Wall So That It Might Be Recovered

In a stunning twist in an
already strange tale, two men have confessed to stealing, and then
sneakily returning, a Gustav Klimt painting to a gallery in Italy.
The missing painting was
recently uncovered by gardeners inside an external wall of the same
gallery from which it was stolen some 24 years ago.

The extraordinary series of events occurred at the Ricci
Oddi Modern Art Gallery in the Italian city of Piacenza. The police
closed in on the pair of criminals after they wrote a letter to the local
newspaper, Libertà, confessing to the decades-old
crime.

“We are the authors of the theft of Klimt’s
Portrait of a Lady, and we have given a gift to the city
by returning the canvas,” the men, who are in their 60s,
wrote.

The pair were part of a crime
ring that has been responsible for a number of burglaries in the
area. The letter was written
to one of the paper’s reporters, Ermanno Mariani, who had
interviewed one of them when he was being tried for burglary
several years ago.

The painting was discovered
on December 10 by gardeners who were clearing ivy from an
external wall. It was hidden in a trash bag inside an alcove behind
a secret panel. On Friday, experts appointed by Italian prosecutors
confirmed the authenticity
of the work, and the pair were taken in for
questioning. 

The pair’s lawyer, Guido
Gulieri, tells the Guardian that they claim to have returned the painting
four years ago, and have given police the address of the house in
which they say it had been stored before that time. “They have been
obscure about the details but have always maintained that the
painting was not in the cavity all of that time,” the lawyer said.
“I’m not a technical expert, but it would have been damaged if it
had been there for all those years.” (Artnet News reached out to Gulieri for comment
but did not immediately hear back.)

Their story is corroborated by
the findings of the conservation team, which reported the painting
to be in good condition. It would be unlikely for a painting that
had been stored in the alcove for 23 years to be completely
undamaged.

The thieves made the recent confession more than 20 years after
the February 22, 1997 theft, timing it to come after the expiration
of the statute of limitations on the crime. Facing jail time for a
separate burglary spree, they may have been attempting use the
Klimt painting’s whereabouts as a bargaining chip in gunning for a
reduced sentence. In their confession, they wrote that they
had decided to tip off the public only after they were “sure not to
incur further crimes,” and added that they “did not foresee
the intervention of the gardener who, however, only anticipated us
a little.”

The confession was timed alongside an imminent sentence from
Italy’s Supreme Court. They will now serve seven years and two
months, and four years and eight months, respectively, for “theft
and receiving stolen goods” from targets including villas,
apartments, and companies, according to Libertà.

While the police are still investigating the crime—it was
reported on Friday that there was forensic evidence on the
painting—their lawyer says they will not go to prison for the theft
of the Klimt. “It is a very strange story,” Gulieri says.
“They could have sold it or burned it… But the good news is, we
have found the painting.”

The post In a Twist, Two Serial Art Thieves Confess to
Having Hidden Klimt’s ‘Portrait of a Lady’ Inside a Wall So That It
Might Be Recovered appeared first on artnet News.