5 days ago
Australia's most expensive painting was stolen without anyone noticing
This was the ransom letter sent by the thieves that had stolen Australia's most expensive painting without anyone noticing.
Sometime after the National Gallery of Victoria closed on 2 August, 1986, Pablo Picasso's Weeping Woman painting was simply unscrewed from the wall and carried out of the gallery, with just a card left in its place that said the piece had been removed for 'routine maintenance'.
The ransom note—published in The Age on the following Tuesday—explained that the self-proclaimed Australian Cultural Terrorists had stolen the painting to protest against the meagre 'funding of the fine arts in this hick State and against the clumsy, unimaginative stupidity of the administration and distribution of that funding.'
The thieves demanded a 10% increase in arts funding and the establishment of an annual art prize worth $25,000 and named The Picasso Ransom.
Three weeks later an anonymous phone call led police to a locker in the Spencer Street railway station, where the Weeping Woman was finally found—but the identity of the thieves has remained a mystery ever since.
Video transcript
This was the ransom letter sent by the thieves who had stolen Australia's most expensive painting without anyone noticing.
Sometime after the National Gallery of Victoria closed on the 2nd of August 1986, Pablo Picasso's Weeping Woman was simply unscrewed from the wall and carried out of the gallery with just a card left in its place that said the piece had been removed for routine maintenance.
A ransom note published in The Age on the following Tuesday, explained that the self-proclaimed Australian cultural terrorists had stolen the painting.
To protest against the meagre funding of the fine arts and against the clumsy, unimaginative stupidity of the administration and distribution of that funding, the thieves demanded a 10% increase in arts funding and the establishment of an annual art prize worth $25,000 and named the Picasso Ransom.
Three weeks later, an anonymous phone call led police to a locker in the Spencer Street railway station where the Weeping Woman was finally found, but the identity of the thieves has remained a mystery ever since.
