Bellingcat Challenge #37 "Edward Scizzorhands: Art Thief" Writeup
Table of Contents
This article was automatically translated from Japanese by AI.
Challenge
Bellingcat Challenge #37 “Edward Scizzorhands: Art Thief”
Sometimes, a large or famous painting stolen from a church might draw a lot of attention if sold via the regular art market. But how do art thieves avoid the heat?
In 1982, thieves broke into a cathedral and cut away a small portion of this large-scale painting. After the theft, the cut-out canvas changed hands several times over 35 years before eventually ending up at an auction where careful eyes spotted it.
What is the name of the auction house where this canvas extract was put up for auction?
Solution
A reverse image search of the challenge image did not produce any useful leads, so I searched for "stolen painting from cathedral 1982".
This led to an article about the rediscovered fragment of a Federico Barocci painting. It states that the fragment cut from a painting in Urbino Cathedral in 1982 was listed for auction at Wannenes House. The name of the auction house is therefore Wannenes.
Flag
Wannenes
Notes
The Kidnapped Child shows the original painting, the location of the missing section, and the recovered fragment.
A YouTube video also shows where the region used in the challenge image appears within the original painting.
