On 14 March 2020, thieves broke into the Christ Church Picture Gallery of Oxford University. They stole three works by the Baroque painters Anthony van Dyck, Annibale Carracci and Salvator Rosa, worth an estimated value of £10 million. Since then, three frames have been left empty on the museum's walls to commemorate the incident.
See also: Three Old Master Paintings Stolen from an Oxford Gallery
One of these frames can now be filled again. As announced by Thames Valley Police, Salvator Rosa's painting Rocky Coast with Soldiers Studying a Plan resurfaced in Romania, where the police were contacted by a man who wanted to return Rosa's work. Although he sold the other two paintings, the man is being treated as a witness, not a perpetrator, and was therefore not arrested.
A Rocky Coast, with Soldiers Studying a Plan (c. 1640) was received in Bucharest by Thames Valley Police and Jacqueline Thalmann, curator of the Christ Church Picture Gallery, and brought back to Oxford. Van Dyck's A Soldier on Horseback and Carracci's A Boy Drinking are still being sought.
See also: 10 Major Art Thefts in 10 Different Years
"We’re grateful to the Romanian authorities and Thames Valley Police for their help in retrieving this priceless work and returning it to our gallery," says Thalman. "The missing paintings have been on public view since 1768, so it’s vital that we recover them so they can be enjoyed and studied by all once more. Not only do the paintings form a significant part of our collection, but their significance to our British and European culture is inestimable. I’d like to appeal to anyone who has any information which can help return the remaining pictures to our gallery, where they can continue to enrich our public life."
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Senior investigating officer, Detective Chief Inspector James Mather commented, "Our enquiries are ongoing and we are working with the Romanian judiciary and police, as well as Eurojust and Europol, to gather further intelligence, and it is believed that the other two paintings were sold on in Romania and could be anywhere in Europe."
The Christ Church Picture Gallery collection includes around 300 paintings and 2,000 Old Master drawings, with a particular focus on Italian painting of the 14th-18th centuries.
