How the World’s Most Famous Art Was Stolen 世界名畫失竊錄

The Last Judgment

The Last Judgment by Hans Memling was originally meant to be a part of the central altarpiece1） of a chapel2） in Florence， Italy. However， pirates raided the ship carrying the painting while on the way to deliver the masterpiece to its final resting place. The pirates offered the painting to the city of Gdansk， Poland， to be part of its cathedral. To this day the painting remains in the Gdansk National Museum. Efforts to return the painting to its home country of Italy have never been successful. This case is especially famous because the thieves not only were able to steal the painting but were also able to \"legitimately\" sell the painting to an establishment3）.

Mona Lisa

The August 1911 heist4） of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in Paris has some amazing circumstances surrounding it. The disappearance of the most famous painting in the western world went unnoticed for 24 hours！ After 2 years， the thief was caught. Vincenzo Peruggia hid the Mona Lisa in his apartment in Florence， claiming that he planned to return it to its rightful home. He may have been encouraged to do so by Eduardo Valfierno， a con man5） who planned to commission art forger6） Yves Chaudron to forge the Mona Lisa and sell fakes. However， the case itself is one of the least understood and mysterious art heists in history. Peruggia reportedly walked into the Louvre， removed the painting from a wall， wrapped it in cloth， and then walked out the door—all in plain view of the Security Guards， who reported that they assumed he was the Museum Photographer.

Storm on the Sea of Galilee

This is the greatest art theft of all time. It all happened on one fateful night in March 1990 when a pair of thieves disguised as policemen demanded entry into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. After tying up the guards， they made off with7） $500 million worth of masterpieces including Rembrandt's Storm on the Sea of Galilee and Vermeer's The Concert， leaving empty picture frames where world-famous masterpieces were once displayed.

The Scream

It was a particularly low-tech kind of theft， requiring just two men， a stolen car， a ladder， a hammer， and some wire cutters. On the morning of 12 February， 1994， one of the men scaled the ladder， took a hammer to the window and climbed into room 10 of Oslo’s National Gallery， where he proceeded to cut the wires holding Edvard Munch’s The Scream. Sliding the bulky8） painting down the ladder to his accomplice， the thief quickly followed. It took just 50 seconds to steal a painting valued at $72 million. The National Gallery had been robbed before and had made attempts to beef up9） security， but it was still far from invulnerable. There was an element of mockery10） in the theft， coming as it did on the opening day of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. As a final petty11） remark the thieves left a postcard behind which said， “Thanks for the poor security.”

Self Portrait

The chronology12） of events that took place in Stockholm， Sweden， on December 22， 2000， reads more like the script of a Hollywood action film than an account of a true crime. That morning， masked robbers blocked roads leading to the National Museum with cars， exploding them to create a distraction. To slow any pursuit they scattered tire-shredding13） spikes14） across the road. Armed with pistols and a machine gun， the three gangsters entered the museum. The leader held visitors and guards at bay15） by gunpoint16） as the others made a beeline17） for a Rembrandt and two Renoirs， shearing18） them from the wall. Once back together， the three dashed from the museum， winding through the peninsula19） on which it sits， until reaching a waiting speedboat that whisked20） them away. Within two weeks of the heist eight men had been arrested in connection with the crime， including a lawyer assigned to negotiate the ransom21）. Two of the three works have been located in the years since. A sting22） operation in Copenhagen led to the recovery of Rembrandt’s Self Portrait in 2005.

《最后的審判》

漢斯·梅姆靈的畫作《最后的審判》最初本該作為意大利佛羅倫薩一間教堂里中央圣壇背壁裝飾畫的一部分。然而，就在將這幅名作運往最終安放地點的途中，負責運送的船只卻遭到了海盜的襲擊。海盜們將畫賣給了波蘭的格但斯克市，作為當地大教堂的裝飾。直到今天，該畫仍然被保存在格但斯克國家博物館內。所有試圖讓這幅畫回歸意大利故里的努力均以失敗告終。這宗案件之所以特別出名，是因為盜賊們不僅成功地將畫盜走，而且還能光明正大地將它“合法地”賣給一家機構。

《蒙娜麗莎》

1911年8月發生在巴黎盧浮宮的《蒙娜麗莎》盜竊案頗有些不同尋常之處。這幅西方世界最著名的畫作被盜24小時后，人們才發現它不見了。案發兩年后，竊賊被抓獲。這個名叫溫琴佐·佩魯賈的竊賊把《蒙娜麗莎》藏在了他那位于佛羅倫薩的公寓里，并且聲稱他計劃將這幅畫交還給它真正的主人。他這樣做也許是受到了愛德華多·瓦爾菲爾諾的教唆，這個愛德華多是一名詐騙犯，他原計劃委托藝術品偽造者伊夫·肖德龍仿制《蒙娜麗莎》并將贗品出售。不過，這樁案件本身就是歷來最令人費解和充滿疑團的藝術品失竊案之一。據稱，佩魯賈走進盧浮宮，從墻上取下這幅畫并用布包好，然后從大門離開——整個過程就發生在保安人員的眼皮底下，而他們卻解釋說，當時誤以為他是盧浮宮博物館的攝影師了。

《加利利海上的風暴》

這是史上最大的一宗藝術品盜竊案。案件就發生在1990年3月的一個災難性的夜晚，兩名盜賊化裝成警察，敲開了波士頓伊莎貝拉-斯圖爾特-加德納博物館的大門。他們把保安捆綁起來，搶走了價值共計五億美元的多幅名作，其中就包括倫勃朗的《加利利海上的風暴》和弗米爾的《音樂會》，使得原先展示這些世界名畫的地方事后只留下空空的畫框。

《吶喊》

這是一樁技術含量特別低的盜竊案，只需兩個人、一輛偷來的車、一架梯子、一把錘子和幾把鋼絲鉗。1994年2月12日清晨，一名竊賊爬上一架梯子，用錘子砸破窗戶，翻窗進入奧斯陸國家美術館的10號展室。他剪斷了固定愛德華·蒙克的作品《吶喊》的鋼絲，將這幅畫取下。在將這幅巨大的畫作沿著梯子滑下并遞給同伙之后，他也迅速爬下梯子。兩名竊賊僅用了50秒的時間就將這幅價值7200萬美元的名畫盜走。奧斯陸國家美術館此前也曾遭到過搶劫，并已嘗試去加強安保力量，但防護措施顯然還遠遠不夠完備。這起盜竊案帶有一絲嘲弄的意味，因為案發當日恰逢1994年利勒哈默爾冬奧會開幕。最后竊賊還有話要說，他們在留下的一張明信片背面寫道：“感謝你們不堪一擊的安保措施。”

《自畫像》

這起2000年12月22日發生在瑞典斯德哥爾摩的案件的卷宗讀起來更像是一部好萊塢動作片的劇本，而不像真實發生過的案件的記錄。那天早晨，一伙蒙面劫匪用汽車將瑞典國家博物館周圍的路堵死，并引爆了這些汽車以吸引人們的注意。為了阻礙警方追捕，他們還在路上撒了許多用來刺破輪胎的大釘子。三名劫匪手持手槍和一挺沖鋒槍進入了博物館。其中為首的匪徒用槍控制住參觀者及安保人員，其余匪徒則直奔倫勃朗的一幅作品和雷諾阿的兩幅作品而去，將它們從墻上摘下。三人隨即會合并迅速逃離了博物館。他們蜿蜒穿過博物館所在的半島，直到登上等著他們的一艘快艇，飛速駛離。盜竊案發生后的兩周內，警方逮捕了八名涉案人員，其中包括一名負責贖金談判的律師。在隨后的幾年里，三幅畫作中有兩幅的下落已被查明。在哥本哈根的一次突擊行動中，警方尋獲線索，終于在2005年找回了倫勃朗的《自畫像》。

1.altarpiece [???lt?pi?s] n. 圣壇背壁裝飾畫（或雕刻）

2.chapel [?t??pl] n. （常附屬于大教堂的）小教堂

3.establishment [??st?bl??m?nt] n. 企業；建立的機構

4.heist [ha?st] n. 偷竊

5.con man： 騙子

6.forger [?f??d??（r）] n. 偽造者

7.make off with： （尤指未經允許而）拿走；偷走

8.bulky [?b?lki] adj. 龐大的

9.beef up： <口>增加；加強

10.mockery [?m?k?ri] n. 嘲笑，譏笑

11.petty [?peti] adj. 小的，瑣碎的

12.chronology [kr??n?l?d?i] n. 年表

13.shred [?red] v. （被）撕碎

14.spike [spa?k] n. 道釘；大釘

15.hold at bay： 控制

16.gunpoint [?ɡ?np??nt] n. 槍口

17.make a beeline： 取捷徑，走直路

18.shear [???（r）] vt. （通過剪來）拿走

19.peninsula [p??n?nsj?l?] n. 【地】半島

20.whisk [w?sk] vt. 飛快帶走

21.ransom [?r?ns?m] n. 贖金

22.sting [st??] n. <口> （尤指警察為逮捕罪犯而）精心設置的圈套