Latest news with #stolenart


Telegraph
3 days ago
- Telegraph
Thief ‘missed priceless Damien Hirst works' in raid on artist's studio
A burglar stole £400,000 worth of items from Damien Hirst's riverside studio – but left behind artworks potentially worth millions, it has been claimed. The thief smashed a window to enter the workshop in Hammersmith, west London, at some point between June 27 and 30, Westminster magistrates' court was told. They are said to have stolen unique T-shirts, shirts and trousers designed by the artist, along with a set of hi-tech speakers, from the studio in the Thames Wharf building. Leslie Gomm, 61, pleaded guilty to handling the stolen goods, although the court heard that his son, Liam, is suspected of carrying out the burglary and remains at large. Suleman Hussain, prosecuting, said the building had a password-protected secure door but the burglar smashed through a window next to a fire exit to reach the second-floor gallery. 'The premises in question is a workshop – it is not residential,' he said. 'When the victim returned to the property, they noted that there were items strewn all over the floor. 'The exit door was open, and the window by the fire door was completely smashed open. They believe this is probably how the burglar got in. A police officer has confirmed that approximately £400,000 worth of items were stolen.' Some pieces were reportedly recovered from Gomm's address in Fulham, south-west London, but a number, valued in the thousands, remain missing. The court heard that the discovered pieces were returned to Hirst after Gomm initially denied any knowledge of the stolen items and claimed they were from a car boot sale. Gomm lived at the address with his son, who is now wanted by police over the burglary, said Mr Hussain. 'His son is currently subject to a GPS tag,' the prosecutor added. 'After the incident, the son has taken off his tag and he is at large, wanted by the police.' Moira MacFarlane, defending, said Gomm had worked on the railways for seven years until his mother became ill and died. He will be sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court on Aug 6. While it is not known which artworks were kept at Hirst's studio, nearby residents said they believed the thief had missed out on pieces worth millions. One told the Daily Mail: 'Quite amusingly, the rumour is they did not take any artwork. Whoever it was just went straight past invaluable artwork and made off with thousands in clothes.' Hirst, 60, has been reported to be the world's richest artist, with an estimated net worth of more than £300 million. He burst onto the art scene in the 1990s, along with fellow artists like Tracey Emin, and his work was championed by the influential collector Charles Saatchi. His works have sold for huge sums, such as Lullaby Spring, a cabinet holding 6,136 individually painted pills, which sold for £15 million in 2007. Other notable works have included animals preserved in formaldehyde, including a dove, a pair of calves, and a shark dissected into three pieces.


The Standard
5 days ago
- Business
- The Standard
Dutch art sleuth recovers stolen trove of UNESCO-listed documents
This handout photograph obtained on July 8, 2025, courtesy of Arthur Brand shows Dutch art detective Arthur Brand holding stolen documents from the 15th to the 19th century, including several UNESCO-listed archives from the world's first multinational corporation Dutch East India Company (VOC), in Amsterdam on June 24, 2025. (AFP)


Asharq Al-Awsat
5 days ago
- Business
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Dutch Art Sleuth Recovers Stolen Trove of UNESCO-listed Documents
A Dutch art sleuth has recovered a priceless trove of stolen documents from the 15th to the 19th century, including several UNESCO-listed archives from the world's first multinational corporation. Arthur Brand, nicknamed the "Indiana Jones of the Art World" for his high-profile recovery of stolen masterpieces, said the latest discovery was among his most significant. "In my career, I have been able to return fantastic stolen art, from Picassos to a Van Gogh... yet this find is one of the highlights of my career," Brand told AFP. Many of the documents recount the early days of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), whose globetrotting trading and military operations contributed to the Dutch "Golden Age", when the Netherlands was a global superpower. The 17th century VOC documents contain a "fascinating glimpse into the events of that time in places like Europe, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Latin America," said Brand. One document from 1602 recounts the first meeting of the VOC, during which its famous logo -- considered the world's first corporate logo -- was designed. VOC merchants criss-crossed the globe, catapulting the Netherlands to a world trading power but also exploiting and oppressing the colonies it conquered. The company was also a leading diplomatic power and one document relates a visit in 1700 by top VOC officials to the court of the Mughal emperor in India. "Since the Netherlands was one of the most powerful players in the world at that time in terms of military, trade, shipping, and colonies, these documents are part of world history," said Brand. UNESCO agrees, designating the VOC archives as part of its "Memory of the World" documentary heritage collection. "The VOC archives make up the most complete and extensive source on early modern world history anywhere," says UNESCO on its website. The trove also featured early ships logs from one of the world's most famous admirals, Michiel de Ruyter, whose exploits are studied in naval academies even today. De Ruyter gained fame for his daring 1667 raid to attack the English fleet in the River Medway, one of the greatest humiliations in world naval history. The ship's logs, written in his own hand, relate the admiral's first experience of naval warfare, the 1641 Battle of St Vincent against the Spanish fleet. No less enthralling is the "who-dunnit" of how Brand came by the documents. Brand received an email from someone who had stumbled across a box of seemingly ancient manuscripts while clearing out the attic of an incapacitated family member. This family member occasionally lent money to a friend, who would leave something as collateral -- in this case the box of documents. "I received some photos and couldn't believe my eyes. This was indeed an extraordinary treasure," Brand told AFP. Brand investigated with Dutch police and concluded the documents had been stolen in 2015 from the vast National Archives in The Hague. The main suspect -- an employee at the archives who had indeed left the box as collateral but never picked it up -- has since died. Brand compared the theft to a daring heist by a curator at the British Museum, who spirited away some 1,800 objects, selling some of them on eBay. The art detective said he spent many an evening sifting through the documents, transported back in time. "Wars at sea, negotiations at imperial courts, distant journeys to barely explored regions, and knights," he told AFP. "I felt like I had stepped into Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Treasure Island."

News.com.au
5 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Dutch art sleuth recovers stolen trove of UNESCO-listed documents
A Dutch art sleuth has recovered a priceless trove of stolen documents from the 15th to the 19th century, including several UNESCO-listed archives from the world's first multinational corporation. Arthur Brand, nicknamed the "Indiana Jones of the Art World" for his high-profile recovery of stolen masterpieces, said the latest discovery was among his most significant. "In my career, I have been able to return fantastic stolen art, from Picassos to a Van Gogh... yet this find is one of the highlights of my career," Brand told AFP. Many of the documents recount the early days of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), whose globetrotting trading and military operations contributed to the Dutch "Golden Age", when the Netherlands was a global superpower. The 17th century VOC documents contain a "fascinating glimpse into the events of that time in places like Europe, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Latin America," said Brand. One document from 1602 recounts the first meeting of the VOC, during which its famous logo -- considered the world's first corporate logo -- was designed. VOC merchants criss-crossed the globe, catapulting the Netherlands to a world trading power but also exploiting and oppressing the colonies it conquered. The company was also a leading diplomatic power and one document relates a visit in 1700 by top VOC officials to the court of the Mughal emperor in India. "Since the Netherlands was one of the most powerful players in the world at that time in terms of military, trade, shipping, and colonies, these documents are part of world history," said Brand. UNESCO agrees, designating the VOC archives as part of its "Memory of the World" documentary heritage collection. "The VOC archives make up the most complete and extensive source on early modern world history anywhere," says UNESCO on its website. The trove also featured early ships logs from one of the world's most famous admirals, Michiel de Ruyter, whose exploits are studied in naval academies even today. De Ruyter gained fame for his daring 1667 raid to attack the English fleet in the River Medway, one of the greatest humiliations in world naval history. The ship's logs, written in his own hand, relate the admiral's first experience of naval warfare, the 1641 Battle of St Vincent against the Spanish fleet. - 'An extraordinary treasure' - No less enthralling is the "who-dunnit" of how Brand came by the documents. Brand received an email from someone who had stumbled across a box of seemingly ancient manuscripts while clearing out the attic of an incapacitated family member. This family member occasionally lent money to a friend, who would leave something as collateral -- in this case the box of documents. "I received some photos and couldn't believe my eyes. This was indeed an extraordinary treasure," Brand told AFP. Brand investigated with Dutch police and concluded the documents had been stolen in 2015 from the vast National Archives in The Hague. The main suspect -- an employee at the archives who had indeed left the box as collateral but never picked it up -- has since died. Brand compared the theft to a daring heist by a curator at the British Museum, who spirited away some 1,800 objects, selling some of them on eBay. The art detective said he spent many an evening sifting through the documents, transported back in time. "Wars at sea, negotiations at imperial courts, distant journeys to barely explored regions, and knights," he told AFP. "I felt like I had stepped into Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Treasure Island."