Poland’s only Monet, the Plage de Pourville, Stolen in 2000 & Now Recovered

Claude Monet, Plage de Pourville, 1882. Oil on canvas (60 X 73 cm). © National Museum in Poznań, Poland. Stolen from the Museum in 2000, and recovered by Polish Police 12 January 2010.

Monet’s Plage de Pourville, painted in 1882 and stolen in 2000 from National Museum in Poznań, Poland, was recently recovered by the Polish police and presented to an eager press-pack in Poznań. And yesterday, 1 March, the man who stole Poland’s only painting by Monet was placed under psychiatric observation.

Yesterday, Monday 1 March 2010, a Polish court ordered an unemployed construction worker, known as Robert Z., who allegedly stole Monet’s Plage de Pourville (a small village on the Normandy coast), to be placed under psychiatric observation. “Psychiatric experts will have four weeks to observe Robert Z. and prepare their opinion,” Krystyna Blaszczak, spokeswoman for the Poznan regional court told AFP yesterday.

The 41-year-old suspect, who has been named only by his first name for legal reasons, reportedly visited the museum in Poznań to admire the painting just days before the painting was stolen. Robert Z. has admitted to cutting the canvas out of its frame and replacing it with a fake. He then hid stashed the painting in a wardrobe at his parent’s house in the southern Polish city of Olkusz, without them even knowing about it.

The Polish police recovered the painting on 12 January 2010 by tracing fingerprints left at the scene of the crime. According to a museum spokesperson, the artwork has been kept in a good condition and has not suffered any visible damage.

The painting had been valued by insurers at about 740 000 Euros. If found guilty, the 41 year old faces up to 10 years in prison.

Two women of the National Museum of Poznan hold the painting Plage de Pourville by Claude Monet during a presentation to media at the National Museum in Poznan, Poland, 13 January 2010.

Monet’s Plage de Pourville, National Museum in Poland, was stolen on 19 September 2000 and recovered 12 January 2010. The thief cut the poorly-protected painting out of its frame and replaced it with a forgery. Plage de Pourville is the only painting by Claude Monet in a Polish art collection.

Monet’s painting of the Plage de Pourville during a presentation to media in Poznan, Poland, on 13 January 2010 after its recovery by Polish police the day before.

Photographs © European PressPhoto Agency