Van Dyck coup solved A plot, 75 years of confusion and a rather brazen thief
In 1951, a painting by the Flemish master Anthonis van Dyck disappeared from an English manor house. Only now have the perpetrators been convicted: This is the story of a robber's tale involving three dishonorable gentlemen.
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- The theft: In 1951, a small Van Dyck painting disappears from the stately Boughton House in England, just after a famous art expert has examined the collection.
- The cover-up: the painting turns up at an auction with a certificate of authenticity but no indication of origin. Three prominent figures from the art scene are involved.
- The coincidence: the actual owner discovers the painting in a US museum in 1957 and only now notices the theft.
- The revelation: decades later, art historian Meredith Hale reconstructs the case and identifies those involved. The revelation comes as a shock to the art world.
In 1957, the Duchess of Buccleuch stood in front of a portrait of a German prince in the Fogg Art Museum at the elite US university Harvard. It looked exactly like a picture in her castle in the English county of Northamptonshire: At Boughton House, the "English Versailles", her family had been collecting masterpieces by famous painters for centuries.
The collection also included paintings by the Flemish master Anthonis van Dyck, a contemporary and pupil of Peter Paul Rubens. One of his paintings had ended up in a museum on the other side of the Atlantic without the family's knowledge. How could this have happened?
Apparently, the Dukes of Buccleuch had become victims of an art theft without realizing it, which could only be solved more than seven decades later. Dr. Meredith Hale, a lecturer in art history at the University of Exeter, has even identified the perpetrator, as the Guardian reports, citing an academic paper to be published in the British Art Journal on March 18.
A respectable man with long fingers
The mystery began six years before the missing painting was rediscovered by chance by its owner. At the center of the story was a man who enjoyed an excellent reputation in the English art scene: Leonard Gerald Gwynne Ramsey was an art expert and editor of the renowned art journal "The Connoisseur".
His good reputation and expertise opened doors for him in England, including to Boughton House. In 1951, he was allowed to view the impressive collection of the Dukes of Bucchleuch as part of a research project. Because the master of the house was ill, Ramsey was allowed to wander through the halls alone. The trust was (too) great.
The Van Dyck painting, on the other hand, was quite small: the portrait of Prince Wolfgang Wilhelm von Pfalz-Neuburg measures just 16.5 by 22 centimetres. It is part of a 37-part series of grisailles (monochrome sketches).
The fact that Ramsey stole the painting was a "remarkable theft", writes Hale. The rest of the story, however, is more like a robber's tale. Ramsey had obtained a certificate of authenticity from art expert Ludwig Goldscheider before the painting was auctioned anonymously at Christie's in 1954. As Hale discovered, the anonymous bidder was the art dealer Eugene Slatter.
The three men, Ramsey, Goldscheider and Slatter, knew each other well through the art journal "The Connoisseur". Ramsey was the editor, Goldscheider published articles and Slatter's exhibitions were favorably reviewed.
Overwhelming evidence, but no proof
After the Duchess of Buccleuch discovered the painting by chance in America, the owners demanded its return. But it was not that simple. The auction house Christie's had not carried out a provenance check, and no matter how strong the evidence was, there was no clear proof of the involvement of Ramsey, Goldscheider and Slatter.
When questioned, they became entangled in fierce contradictions: Ramsey claimed never to have been in Boughton House and Goldscheider did not want to have issued a certificate of authenticity. By the end of the 1950s, the whole thing stank to high heaven, or as the then director of the National Gallery put it: "Neither of them makes a good impression."
It was only Meredith Hale's research that established the connection between the three men beyond doubt. 35 years after his death, the art expert proved Ramsey to be the thief.
In the meantime, the Van Dyck painting had become the property of the University of Toronto through inheritance. Hale helped negotiate the return arrangements so that Anthonis van Dyck's Prince can once again reside in his ancestral home - almost 75 years after it was stolen from there.
Hale's findings come as a shock to the art world, as Robin Simon, editor of the British Art Journal, explains: "Our work is based on trust and we have to be scrupulous." The involvement of a legendary art historian like Ludwig Goldscheider, one of the co-founders of the renowned art publishing house Phaidon Press, in the case is all the more shocking. "I'm afraid," says Simon, "he was up to his neck in the business, both in the sale and in the cover-up."
