So which of the 7 recently stolen famous artworks (now reported destroyed) would you have saved?

[ChickenGuy]

They were stolen last year from a Dutch gallery in Rotterdam.

It's now revealed that they ended up being roasted in a Romanian mother's oven.

(yes you read that correctly)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23349744

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesi...824563&index=0

Romanian investigators have found the remains of paint, canvas and nails in the oven of a woman whose son is charged with stealing masterpieces from a Dutch gallery in October last year.

The art is valued at between 100m and 200m euros ($130m- $260m, £86m-£172m).

Perhaps a new artwork could be drawn from using the charcoal dust?

Looks like the paintings were too hot to handle.

Here's the seven paintings....




Reading Girl in White and Yellow by Henri Matisse




Harlequin Head by Pablo Picasso




Girl in Front of Open Window by Paul Gauguin




Self-Portrait by Meyer de Haan




Woman with Eyes Closed by Lucian Freud






Charing Cross Bridge and Waterloo Bridge by Claude Monet


They're not really my kind of thing. That dreadful Picasso is going straight in the oven.

I think I'd have saved the Matisse and the Gauguin (first and third pics) they are at least fairly aesthetically soft and photogenic portraits.

Lol at me becoming an art critic.

What say all of you?

Rescue or Roast?

[MoufOfKhaos]

Number 6, but that says absolutely nothing about me as an art critic and everything about me as a horror fan.

I would have sold it though, because I simply doubt i'd put anything like that in my room or home. Of course, had I sold it, my new roommate would be either named Bubba, Lamar, or Heffe, or whatever the European jail name equivalent is, so there's that.

[gsdx]

Any of them except the Picasso. I was never impressed with his artwork and could never understand why he fetched such high prices. Like Jackson Pollock, I always got the feeling that they painted the way they did because they couldn't paint.

I'd go for the Charing Cross Bridge (and try my best to rescue the Waterloo Bridge as well).

[Scealle]

Woaw so sad to hear that all these millions worth artwork destroyed
I would try to save any of the portraits except Picasso. As I don't really get his work either.

[blackbeltninja]

Although the Matisse and Gauguin are probably the most aesthetically pleasing, I'd have gone for the Monets.

-d-

[borg69unimatrix]

None of them really do anything for me...

Not that I have any great taste in art, but none of those 'speak' to me enough that I'd want them hanging in my house.

I'm more of a Michelangelo fan.


Am I the only one that thinks Self-Portrait by Meyer de Haan looks like Harke, here at JUB???

[Scealle]

None of them really do anything for me...

Not that I have any great taste in art, but none of those 'speak' to me enough that I'd want them hanging in my house.

I'm more of a Michelangelo fan.


Am I the only one that thinks Self-Portrait by Meyer de Haan looks like Harke, here at JUB???

Michelangelo is indeed a historical amazing artist. I LOVE his David statue when I first saw it (in a book) when I was 6. Both his drawing/ sculpting is way beyond human level if you ask me.
Haha I do see some resemblance here except the ginger hair.

[eastofeden]

I have to go with Picasso (#2)...It is the one painting I kept going back to...I see something different every time I look at it and it is intriguing to me.

[gsdx]

I LOVE his David statue

Did you know David is sculpted out of perspective? He's bigger at the top than he is at the bottom. Michelangelo did that intentionally so that people standing at its base and looking up at him would see him in proper perspective.

[Scealle]

Did you know David is sculpted out of perspective? He's bigger at the top than he is at the bottom. Michelangelo did that intentionally so that people standing at its base and looking up at him would see him in proper perspective.

Wow really? That's amazing for someone in the past century. Furthermore proofs that he is truly amazing. Wasn't he supposedly gay? And the staue was a gift to impress his lover at the time? Correct me if I am wrong.

[JPGhost]

^
I knew aready that David is an unattractive dude

I dont dig guys with head size bigger than his body.

[rareboy]

I like them all, but they are all relatively minor works in the scheme of things. If I only had time to pull one out of the flames...it would be the Waterloo Bridge because of the place it occupies in his ouvre.

[Scealle]

^
I knew aready that David is an unattractive dude

I dont dig guys with head size bigger than his body.

Lol. Not a size queen here, but at the time the only thing I find way too off for the body proportion was the dick. LOL AGAIN not a size queen here, but isn't the dick too small for a muscular toned body like that? People can say it's a shower vs grower thing..... And I thought greeks are hung. LOL Woops sorry for getting off topic OP

[pat grimshaw]

Olga Dogaru



She loved her son SO much she burns millions of dollars.



Criminal behaviour by the son and the mother

[pat grimshaw]

the Self-Portrait of Meyer-de-Haan reminds me of Simon Pegg

[JayHawk]

Girl in front of an open window. I love art like that. Makes me think a bit of one of my favorites "Blue Boy" by Picasso

[m1thousand]

I used to play Masterpiece (the game) when I was a kid. I was going to say 'Harlequin Head' but I changed my mind

Spoiler: (Highlight this box to see the hidden message.)

as a man is allowed to do. Shame on you if you thought I was goign to say a woman lol

[johaninsc]

the Matisse, Gaugin, and the two by Monet



...torch the others

[nycguydowntown]

None of them are the artists best work or rank as anything that important in their careers but Losing any of them is way fucked up ---how can security be so out of it? In art history these works came from an important time and we don't have the same golden age going on now.

[SaskGuy]

Although I wouldn't hang any of these in my house, they're still a very important part of history and culture, so I would save all of them.

Lol. Not a size queen here, but at the time the only thing I find way too off for the body proportion was the dick. LOL AGAIN not a size queen here, but isn't the dick too small for a muscular toned body like that? People can say it's a shower vs grower thing..... And I thought greeks are hung. LOL Woops sorry for getting off topic OP

Maybe David should have been sculpted with an erection!

[RaKroma]

I don't appreciate this style of art. It all looks like a kid drew it with crayons. They got nothing on Bob Ross' paintings. But I'd save #2 cause the face looks goofy.

[Kulindahr]

Two and four.

[bankside]

I would keep the monet.

They got nothing on Bob Ross' paintings.

BHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH

[LatimerRd]

Monet and Matisse, in that order.
Forget the Picasso.

[star-warrior]

I would save the Picasso, because it made me laugh.

[skinIsIn]

What a selfish hag! Just to save her miserable horse's ass of a son from the slammer!! Absolutely Disgraceful! Have some people have no sense of history, culture, aesthetics or uniqueness?

Just shows how morally bankrupt the greed of "modern society" can be. What more can you expect from those formerly under the collectivist noose of the soviet bloc?

If this how they regard culturally-significant artistic masterpieces?
I shudder to think of how little they must value human life!
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree!

[lambdaboy]

Any of them except the Picasso. I was never impressed with his artwork and could never understand why he fetched such high prices. Like Jackson Pollock, I always got the feeling that they painted the way they did because they couldn't paint.

I'd go for the Charing Cross Bridge (and try my best to rescue the Waterloo Bridge as well).

You are so wrong you have no idea. At 7 years old Picasso painted his sisters communion in church if you do not understand an artist look at there life's work. That does not mean you have to like it you can even laugh at it but you have to see the rest. Look at images in Google you will be surprised!

[lambdaboy]

My partner and I are Americans and now also English. Because it is just two hours and 10 min by train to Paris we go a lot. On one of our last trips we were near some very famous paintings by El Greco. This family of Romanians a mother father and two children were in front of a painting when the mother started feeling it and told the rest of them to do it. I yelled do not do that a God Came over and they were thrown out. Thank goodness she had no oven. What low life's.

[rareboy]

I yelled do not do that a God Came over and they were thrown out.

If only it was this easy......

[Anders123]

It seems as if the thieves didn't know the true monetary value of what they'd stolen until the press coverage of the heist started to blow up. They probably panicked and tried to burn the 'evidence' once they realised there was no chance of finding a buyer. Just how easy were these paintings to steal? Security must have been lacking, because at face value the perpetrators really don't seem to be too bright.

The real shame though is that they're now lost forever. I love Woman with Eyes Closed.

Gustav Klimt is one of the few artists that I've learned about that produced work that really moved my emotions. His work is gorgeous.

A man after my own heart.

[Swellegant]

Most of those paintings look like they were only considered valuable because of the name of the painter. They are minor works at best, and for the most part not very good. I doubt the painters themselves would have risked a burned finger to pull them out of a fire. Picasso doodled better things on cocktail napkins than that harlequin mess.

The stupidity of the thieves and the mother are the most stunning thing. Regardless of aesthetic value, the monetary value of those objects makes destroying them more criminally serious than stealing them.

[dpnice]

Lucian Freud

I have always liked his work. It has an ugliness about it that I find particularly attractive.

[JPGhost]

So which of the 7 recently stolen famous artworks (now reported destroyed) would you have saved?

~ None, not my type

I rather saved this otherwise

[mbamike]

Now, I like this picture. I don't care for the others.

[Beachguyj]

I would save them all, I like the 1 Matisse and 3 Gauguin the best. i love Monet, but those are awful.

[dpnice]

I would save them all, I like the 1 Matisse and 3 Gauguin the best. i love Monet, but those are awful.

At last someone with a cultural conscience. Of course we should save them all, whether we like them or not, they are part of a cultural heritage that should be conserved.

[geloge]

Any of them except the Picasso. I was never impressed with his artwork and could never understand why he fetched such high prices. Like Jackson Pollock, I always got the feeling that they painted the way they did because they couldn't paint.

I'd go for the Charing Cross Bridge (and try my best to rescue the Waterloo Bridge as well).

I'm not sure about Pollock story but this was painted by Picasso when he was only 16. Then he got bored of academic art and he found new ways to express himself. That's art, self expression.

[gsdx]

I'm not sure about Pollock story but this was painted by Picasso when he was only 16. Then he got bored of academic art and he found new ways to express himself. That's art, self expression.

If Picasso had painted that way throughout his life, I might have become a fan.

[geloge]

Wow really? That's amazing for someone in the past century. Furthermore proofs that he is truly amazing. Wasn't he supposedly gay? And the staue was a gift to impress his lover at the time? Correct me if I am wrong.

As far as I know it was an order from Florence, David was the symbol of the city.

That perspective thing was pretty common in sculptures decorating buildings.

[geloge]

If Picasso had painted that way throughout his life, I might have become a fan.

In that case probably he wouldn't have been known

[LatimerRd]

If one--or a thousand, for that matter--dot paintings by Damian Hirst were incinerated would we be having this discussion? Would anyone, other than the owners, care? Can't imagine that Mr Hirst would care.

[SLOPPYSECONDS]

planet earth

thankyou

* FOOOOOOOUR! *
ooh ya so a thang wit ya swing

ha

[palbert]

They may not have been destroyed.

BUCHAREST, Romania — Olga Dogaru, the Romanian woman who told investigators she had incinerated seven works of art by Matisse, Picasso and other modern masters in an effort to protect her son, denied in court on Monday that she had burned the works.
....
In the hearing on Monday, though, she said she had made it all up. “I believed that what I said before was the best thing at the moment, that this was the right thing to do,” Mrs. Dogaru said in court, dressed in a blue T-shirt and baggy white pants. When she was asked what had become of the stolen art, she stuttered and then denied that any burning of artwork had occurred.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/wo...ef=global-home

BUT, it is not known where they are.

[LatimerRd]

^You left out the best part of the NYT article, describing the son as wearing a tight black t-shirt and flexing his biceps during the hearing.