The theft of ''The Weeping Woman'' from the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

took place on 2 August 1986 in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Australia. The stolen work was one of a series of paintings by

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

all known as ''

The Weeping Woman ''The Weeping Woman'' (French: ''La Femme qui pleure'') is a series of oil on canvas paintings by Pablo Picasso, the last of which was created in late 1937. The paintings depict Dora Maar, Picasso's mistress and muse. ''The Weeping Woman'' paint ...

'' and had been purchased by the gallery for in 1985—at the time the highest price paid by an Australian art gallery for an artwork. A group calling itself "Australian Cultural Terrorists" claimed responsibility, making a number of demands (and insults) in letters to the then-Victorian Minister for the Arts,

Race Mathews Charles Race Thorson Mathews (born 27 March 1935
) is an Australian Spencer Street railway station Southern Cross railway station (until 2005 known as Spencer Street station) is a major railway station in Docklands, Victoria, Docklands, Melbourne. It is on Spencer Street, Melbourne, Spencer Street, between Collins Street, Melbourne, Collins ...

on 19 August 1986. The theft still remains unsolved.

The painting

After painting ''

Guernica Guernica (, ), official name (reflecting the Basque language) Gernika (), is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the mu ...

'',

created a series of works depicting one of the figures in the work, a weeping woman. The model for these works was his mistress

Dora Maar Henriette Theodora Markovitch (22 November 1907 – 16 July 1997), known as Dora Maar, was a French photographer, painter, and poet. A romantic partner of Pablo Picasso, Maar was depicted in a number of Picasso's paintings, including his ''Portr ...

. The definitive work in the series is in the collection of the

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...

in the United Kingdom. One of the series was painted on 18 October 1937, and is

oil on canvas Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

, 55 centimetres by 46 centimetres. While the painting at the Tate Modern is in bright reds, blues and yellows, the 18 October work has been described as "an unsettling combination of acid greens and vibrant mauves exaggerated by thick black outlines". This is the painting that was purchased by the

in 1985 for . Before the National Gallery of Victoria bought its ''Weeping Woman'', the highest price paid by a major gallery in Australia for a painting was for

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a hor ...

's ''

Blue Poles ''Blue Poles'', also known as ''Number 11, 1952'' is an abstract expressionist painting by American artist Jackson Pollock. It was purchased amid controversy by the National Gallery of Australia in 1973 and today remains one of the gallery's ma ...

'', which was purchased by the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

in 1973 for . Commenting on the purchase of ''The Weeping Woman'', director of the National Gallery of Victoria

Patrick McCaughey Patrick McCaughey (born 1942) is an Irish-born Australian art historian and academic. McCaughey was born in Belfast, his father being Davis McCaughey. He migrated with his family to Melbourne, Australia. when he was ten years old. His secondary ...

said its recent acquisition is "the most expensive purchase by any Australian gallery", and, "This face is going to haunt

for the next 100 years." In 2016, the National Gallery of Victoria's ''Weeping Woman'' has been reported as valued by

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

as worth .

The theft

On Saturday, 2 August 1986, thieves obtained access to the National Gallery of Victoria and unscrewed the painting from its wall mounting. They removed the mounted canvas from its frame and left the gallery undetected. McCaughey stated that a specialised type of

screwdriver A screwdriver is a tool, manual or powered, used for turning screws. A typical simple screwdriver has a handle and a shaft, ending in a tip the user puts into the screw head before turning the handle. This form of the screwdriver has been repla ...

, not available to the public, would have been required to take the painting off the wall. It has been suggested that the thieves knew their art history: the method of the theft was an ironic

homage Homage (Old English) or Hommage (French) may refer to: History *Homage (feudal) /ˈhɒmɪdʒ/, the medieval oath of allegiance *Commendation ceremony, medieval homage ceremony Arts *Homage (arts) /oʊˈmɑʒ/, an allusion or imitation by one arti ...

to the 1911 theft of the ''

Mona Lisa The ''Mona Lisa'' ( ; it, Gioconda or ; french: Joconde ) is a half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known ...

'' from the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

. (In 1911, Picasso and his contemporary

Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the ...

were both suspects in the ''Mona Lisa'' theft, but were cleared of any association with the crime.) The theft of ''The Weeping Woman'' was not noticed until Monday, 4 August 1986. The thieves had left a card indicating that the painting had been removed for routine maintenance. Staff had assumed that "ACT" on the card – the initials of the "Australian Cultural Terrorists" – referred to the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. ...

, and that the painting had been transferred to the National Gallery of Australia in

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

. Initially it was suspected that the crime might have been perpetrated by a gang of international art smugglers, and the possibility of an "

inside job An insider threat is a malicious threat to an organization that comes from people within the organization, such as employees, former employees, contractors or business associates, who have inside information concerning the organization's security ...

" was not considered. The painting itself was not

insured Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

. Then-Arts Minister

Race Mathews Charles Race Thorson Mathews (born 27 March 1935
) is an Australian

Demands and insults

The "Australian Cultural Terrorists" wrote two letters to Mathews, who was addressed as "Rank Mathews". The first letter demanded that funding for the arts be increased by ten percent over a three-year period. The thieves also demanded that an art prize be set up, worth and to be called "The Picasso Ransom" prize, or for five separate prizes to be awarded to young Australian artists. The thieves communiqués were loaded with insults; the first letter referred to Mathews, who was also Police Minister, as "Minister of

Plod Plod may refer to: *a slang term for a policeman *Mr. Plod, a fictional police officer in the ''Noddy'' stories written by ''Enid Blyton'' *Postman Plod The following is a list of recurring or notable one-off strips from the British adult spo ...

", while the second letter described him as a "tiresome old bag of swamp gas" and a "pompous fathead". The second letter also threatened that if the demands were not met, the painting would be burnt.

Official responses

The

Victorian government The Victoria State Government, also referred to as just the Victorian Government, is the state-level authority for Victoria, Australia. Like all state governments, it is formed by three independent branches: the executive, the judicial, and th ...

refused to accept any of the demands and offered a reward for information leading to the capture of the perpetrators. Mathews was reported as saying: "I can't imagine that anybody who had genuinely at heart the interests either of art or of art lovers could have perpetrated an action of this sort." McCaughey was reported to have said, "We live in a philistine nation but a civilised city."

Recovery

In his 2003 memoir, ''The Bright Shapes and the True Names'', McCaughey wrote that, a few days before the painting was recovered, a Melbourne art dealer called him to say that a young artist may know something about the theft. When he visited the artist's studio, McCaughey writes, he made a point to say that he was interested in the return of the painting, not a conviction for the crime: "I said deliberately, at least twice, that the people who had taken the work could deposit it in a luggage locker at

Spencer Street railway station Southern Cross railway station (until 2005 known as Spencer Street station) is a major railway station in Docklands, Victoria, Docklands, Melbourne. It is on Spencer Street, Melbourne, Spencer Street, between Collins Street, Melbourne, Collins ...

or at

Tullamarine Airport Melbourne Airport , colloquially known as Tullamarine Airport, is the primary airport serving the city of Melbourne, and the second busiest airport in Australia. It opened in 1970 to replace the nearby Essendon Airport. Melbourne Airport is t ...

." Two days later, on 19 August 1986, following an anonymous phone call to police, the painting was found undamaged and carefully wrapped in brown paper tied with string in locker number 227 at Spencer Street station. The locker was opened with a station staff master key. Police stated that the painting was packed in such a way as to ensure that it would not be damaged, suggesting "quite possibly someone in the art world or on the fringes of the art world." McCaughey himself later formally identified the painting. A third letter from the "Australian Cultural Terrorists" was included with the work. Its content was not initially released to the public. An extract printed in ''The Age'' read:

Closure of crime investigation

On 11 January 1989, ''The Age'' reported that the case had been closed, and no further investigations would be made into the theft until solid evidence was presented that any persons, including gallery staff, were involved in the theft.

Contemporary reactions to the theft

In August 1986, while the painting was yet to be recovered, then- Australian Treasurer

Paul Keating Paul John Keating (born 18 January 1944) is an Australian former politician and unionist who served as the 24th prime minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He previously serv ...

was caricatured in a

political cartoon A political cartoon, a form of editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically combine a ...

as the "Weeping Woman", his cause of sorrow being the 1986 Federal Budget. According to McCaughey, "a philistine piece" was written by

B. A. Santamaria Bartholomew Augustine Santamaria, usually known as B. A. Santamaria (14 August 1915 – 25 February 1998), was an Australian Roman Catholic anti-Communist political activist and journalist. He was a guiding influence in the founding of the Dem ...

at around the same time, which urged that if the "Australian Cultural Terrorists" had in fact destroyed Picasso's work, they be awarded the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

. A columnist in ''The Age'' commented that the thieves had "nicked Picasso's ''Weeping Woman'' from McCaughey Mansions", a reference to an old radio program, "McCackie Mansion", involving Mo McCackie, a character created by the late comedian,

Roy Rene Roy Rene (born Henry van der Sluys, 15 February 189122 November 1954) was an Australian comedian and vaudevillian. As the bawdy character Mo McCackie, Rene was one of the most well-known and successful Australian comedians of the 20th century. ...

Chilean Australian Chilean Australians ( es, chilenos australiano) are Australians of Chilean descent or Chileans who have obtained Australian citizenship. Chileans are the second largest group of Hispanic and Latin American Australians residing in Australia. The b ...

artist Juan Davila painted a work titled ''Picasso Theft'' and offered to donate it to the National Gallery of Victoria in place of the stolen painting. Davila wrote that "mine is a real one".

Legacy

The crime was described in 2009 as "still Australia's greatest unsolved art heist". In 2010, in the context of a theft of an entire private collection worth and the theft of a Frans van Mieris self-portrait valued at from the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

in 2004, it was referred to as "most famous art heist in Australia". On the 20th anniversary of the theft, Australian online magazine ''

Crikey Crikey is an Australian electronic magazine comprising a website and email newsletter available to subscribers. Crikey was described by the former Federal Opposition Leader Mark Latham as the "most popular website in Parliament House" in ''The ...

'' described the thieves as "more than likely just a bunch of naughty boys" and that it was regarded by some in the arts community as a work of "

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

" and a political act in response to the "

cultural cringe Cultural cringe, in cultural studies and social anthropology, is an internalized inferiority complex that causes people in a country to dismiss their own culture as inferior to the cultures of other countries. It is closely related to the concept ...

". In 2011,

John Brack John Brack (10 May 1920 – 11 February 1999) was an Australian painter, and a member of the Antipodeans group. According to one critic, Brack's early works captured the idiosyncrasies of their time "more powerfully and succinctly than any Aust ...

's ''

Collins St., 5 pm ''Collins St., 5 pm'' is a 1955 painting by Australian artist John Brack. The painting depicts office workers walking along busy Collins Street in Melbourne after finishing work for the day"Blank-faced office workers hurry by like sleep-walker ...

'' was voted the most popular work in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. ''The Weeping Woman'' was the fourth most popular. The work itself was described in 2012 as "the National Gallery of Victoria's much-loved ''Weeping Woman''".

Film and television

The 1990 film '' A Kink in the Picasso'' was a 'comic and entirely fabricated drama' based on the painting's theft. 'Comedy is always difficult,' wrote reviewer John Mangan, 'even when the most unlikely aspect of the plot - the remarkable ease with which a group of young artists can sneak paintings worth millions of dollars out of art galleries - is based in fact.' The

Australian Film Commission The Australian Film Commission (AFC) was an Australian government agency was founded in 1975 with a mandate to promote the creation and distribution of films in Australia as well as to preserve the country's film history. It also had a producti ...

funded a documentary by Melbourne independent filmmakers Colin Cairnes and Catherine Dyson about the theft entitled ''The Picasso Ransom''. The film was shown at the 23rd

St Kilda Film Festival St Kilda is an inner seaside suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 km (4 miles) south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. St Kilda recorded a population of 19 ...

in 2006. A search was made for Spencer Street station's locker 227, where the painting was found, which supposedly was taken with others to a regional rail facility, but it had been replaced and could not be located. Since the time of the theft, Spencer Street station has been totally rebuilt and now renamed

Southern Cross station Southern Cross railway station (until 2005 known as Spencer Street station) is a major railway station in Docklands, Melbourne. It is on Spencer Street, between Collins and La Trobe Streets, at the western edge of the Melbourne central busi ...

. None of the buildings which housed services and facilities for travellers at that date now exist, although the platforms and a now generally inaccessible underground walkway between platforms still exist. Commencing in late 2021, ''Framed'', a four-part

television documentary Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

about the theft presented by

Marc Fennell Marc Fennell is an Australian film critic, technology journalist, radio personality, author and television presenter. Fennell is a co-anchor of '' The Feed'' and the host of ''Mastermind''. Career Film critic In 2002, Fennell was a winner o ...

is currently available on Australian broadcaster

Special Broadcasting Service The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an Australian hybrid-funded public service broadcaster. About 80 percent of funding for the company is derived from the Australian Government. SBS operates six TV channels ( SBS, SBS Viceland, SBS World ...

SBS on Demand SBS is a national public television network in Australia. Launched on 24 October 1980, it is the responsibility of SBS's television division, and is available nationally. In 2018, SBS had a 7.7% audience share. As of 2022, SBS is the lowest ...

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

service.

Novels

''Stealing Picasso'', Australian writer Anson Cameron's fifth novel, published in 2009, was based on the incident. It includes entirely fictional narrative as well as fictionalised references to actual people and events. ''

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

'', a 2013 novel by Australian writer

Chris Womersley Chris Womersley (born 1968 in Melbourne, Victoria) is an Australian author of crime fiction, short stories and poetry. He trained as a radio journalist and has travelled extensively to such places as India, South-East Asia, South America, Nort ...

about life in inner-city

uses the theft as a theme to describe its narrator's introduction into the

bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Beer * National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst * Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...

lives of its other characters. ''The Guy, the Girl, the Artist and his Ex'', a 2016 young adult novel by Gabrielle Williams, is a fictional story centered around the theft. While researching for the novel, Williams says that she "interviewed a number of people, some of who may or may not have been the actual Australian Cultural Terrorists".

Security measures

In 2012, the work was shown as part of "Theatre of the World", a joint exhibition of the

Museum of Old and New Art The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is an art museum located within the Moorilla winery on the Berriedale peninsula in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is the largest privately funded museum in the Southern Hemisphere. MONA houses ancient, mode ...

and

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) is a museum located in Hobart, Tasmania. The museum was established in 1846, by the Royal Society of Tasmania, the oldest Royal Society outside England. The TMAG receives 400,000 visitors annually. ...

, alongside works by

Giacometti Alberto Giacometti (, , ; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, Drafter, draftsman and Printmaking, printmaker. Beginning in 1922, he lived and worked mainly in Paris but regularly visited his hometown Borgonovo, ...

Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

Basquiat Jean-Michel Basquiat (; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement. Basquiat first achieved fame as part of the graffiti duo SAMO, alongside Al ...

Ernst Ernst is both a surname and a given name, the German, Dutch, and Scandinavian form of Ernest. Notable people with the name include: Surname * Adolf Ernst (1832–1899) German botanist known by the author abbreviation "Ernst" * Anton Ernst (1975- ...

and Hirst. Museum of Old and New Art staff were not informed of the whereabouts or identity of the work, with a then reported value of up to $50 million, until it was in place.

Humour

The end of a disappointing

2012 AFL season The 2012 AFL season was the 116th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured eig ...

for

Australian football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modifie ...

team

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their A ...

was illustrated by a description of there being two well-known weeping figures within walking distance of each other in Melbourne: Essendon coach

James Hird James Albert Hird (born 4 February 1973) is a former professional Australian rules football player and past senior coach of the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Hird played as a midfielder and half-forward, but h ...

at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadiu ...

as well as "the famous one at the National Gallery of Victoria".

References

External links

''Weeping Woman'' Mystery - emelbourne.net
School of Historical Studies, University of Melbourne {{Pablo Picasso, state=collapsed Weeping Woman, The Unsolved crimes in Australia 1986 in art 1986 crimes in Australia Crime in Melbourne 1980s in Melbourne August 1986 events in Australia