Treasure Hunt all over the World

Chapter 540 Top Art Thief

The shooting continued, and Ye Tian's brief explanation and precise identification also continued.

"This is one of Van Gogh's masterpieces, "The Congregation of Nuenen Leaving the Reformed Church", from the famous nineteenth-century Dutch painter and pioneer of Post-Impressionism.

In 2000, this famous painting was stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, along with another Van Gogh painting, "Scheveningen Beach".

That famous painting is also here, you will see it later! The two famous paintings were estimated at 25 million pounds at the time, but that was only the lowest estimate given by the museum and did not meet the market value!

Now that more than ten years have passed, their value has doubled several times, even ten times! In the current art market, the price of these two famous paintings should be more than 100 million US dollars!

Shortly after the theft, the two suspects were arrested by the police, but the two famous paintings have disappeared. There has been no news for more than ten years, and they seem to have disappeared completely!

But who would have thought that they were smuggled into the United States and hidden here, it's incredible! Apparently, today is a lucky day for the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam!

Now that they have been discovered, I believe they will appear in front of the public soon, and it will not be long before everyone can appreciate the artistic charm of these two top oil paintings in the museum again! "

After introducing the two works of Van Gogh, Ye Tian pointed the camera of his mobile phone at another famous painting.

"This is a masterpiece of the 17th-century Flemish painter, an outstanding representative of Baroque art, and the art master Rubens, "Portrait of the Medici".

In 2008, this famous painting was stolen from a private museum in Denmark, along with the famous Spanish Romantic painter, Goya's masterpiece, "Mad Men".

Like other top-level famous paintings highlighted before, these two paintings are both world-class masterpieces, with very high artistic value and market value,…”

In the blink of an eye, another top-level famous painting appeared on the screen of the mobile phone.

Ye Tian's professional explanation and appraisal immediately followed!

"I believe that many people know this painting, which is the famous Spanish Cubist painter, founder of modern art, Picasso's "Dove and Pea".

This famous painting was stolen from the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris in 2010. According to legend, this famous painting has been completely destroyed. I didn't expect to see it here. I'm so lucky!

As can be seen from the video image,

This famous painting is well preserved and no trace of restoration can be seen. From this, it can be seen that the rumor is just a smoke bomb released by the art thief! ..."

"What appears in front of everyone at the moment is an abstract expressionist painting, which comes from the soul of abstract expressionism, Willem de Kooning, this is one of his representative works!

This is a stolen painting that was stolen from the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009, along with several famous Impressionist paintings, unfortunately, I did not see those famous paintings! ..."

Immediately after Abstract Expressionism, another artistic style appeared on the phone screen!

After a while, Ye Tian's voice sounded again immediately!

"This is one of Modigliani's representative works, "Woman with a Fan", a famous painter of the Paris School of Painting, known as the 'Prince of Montparnasse'.

Like "The Pigeon and the Pea", this famous painting was also stolen from the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, and it actually appeared here. It seems that the art thief is very fond of this museum in Paris.

You may recall that not long ago, Sotheby's in New York sold another famous painting by Modigliani, "The Fruit Girl on Side".

These two paintings are both works of Modigliani's peak period, and they are not equal, and the creation time is very close. Even the model is the same woman, Modigliani's lover.

At the Sotheby's auction in New York, the "Fruit Girl Recumbent" sold for $170 million, so how much is this painting worth? Everyone can imagine! ?

Time flies so fast, it's an hour in the blink of an eye.

When it was said that his mouth was dry and his throat was smoking, Ye Tiantian had to stop and prepare to rest for a while before continuing to fight!

At this time, he had only shot less than half, and there were still many antique artworks waiting to be shot in the warehouse!

That's it, it's the result of deliberately speeding up the shooting!

For some paintings of average popularity and not very high value, as well as all prints, drawings, sketches, etc., he just briefly introduced whose works, and then passed them by, in order to save time as much as possible!

If we didn't do this, if each piece of antique art was introduced in detail, I'm afraid not even a third of it would be finished by now!

Even so, the shooting speed was still too slow, making Ye Tian somewhat anxious!

The longer I stay here, the more dangerous it is, and the higher the chance of being discovered by that old guy Thompson.

Surveillance video is one thing, but the consumption of portable generators and batteries is also a problem. If the power consumption increases too much, the old guy may become suspicious.

There are air conditioners and humidifiers that run 24 hours a day, and they consume electricity all the time. As long as the increase in electricity consumption is controlled within a reasonable range, it should not be difficult to pass the test!

In addition, if the shooting time is too long, the mobile phone battery may not be able to support it.

Ye Tian raised his hand and looked at the time, then quickly made a decision.

For the next shooting, if it is not a very important artwork, try to be as concise as possible, just introduce the name, the author, and give the identification conclusion, and leave the rest alone!

This will definitely increase the speed a lot and complete the shooting as soon as possible.

You know, there is a lighted room next door. It is not known whether it is a warehouse where the artworks are displayed or a private studio.

In addition, set aside a little time for perspective exploration to find other dark passages!

If you find it, you might have to go in and investigate.

While resting, Ye Tian was also admiring the many top antique artworks in front of him, with an intoxicated expression on his face!

And in his heart, he secretly sighed with emotion!

Thompson, this old guy, is really big! Absolutely one of the biggest and craziest international art thieves in the world!

Once the many antique works of art in this warehouse come out, they will surely shock the world and shock the entire field of antique art collection!

And the old guy Thompson will instantly become famous and notorious! What he has done in the past 30 years is enough to make everyone stunned!

In the field of art crime, there are not many guys who are crazier than him, and he is definitely rare!

The last such crazy art thief should be the French Stefan Brewitzer.

That guy stole 239 works of art and other exhibits from 172 museums in Europe over a six-year period, an average of once every 15 days, crazy!

It was not until he was caught in 2001 in the Wagra Museum in Switzerland that the most efficient art thief in history ended his legendary art theft career!

There hasn't been such a crazy art thief since then!

But who would have thought that such a top art thief was hidden in Boston, and it was hidden so deeply that it did not reveal any flaws for 30 years!

In this regard, Thompson is obviously much smarter than Brewitzer, and can throw that guy eight streets away!

In addition, there are some differences between the two top art thieves.

Brewitzer went to major European museums to steal crazy because he loved art very much and wanted to own his favorite artwork!

Calling himself an art connoisseur, he was fond of masters from the 16th and 17th centuries, and his main targets were famous works of art from this period.

The results of the police investigation later also proved that what he said was true.

He keeps all the stolen paintings at home and enjoys them alone! For every famous painting that he has stolen, he is very familiar with it, and his appreciation level is no worse than that of an art appraisal expert!

Brevetse usually spends a lot of time with his 'collection', never thinking about selling it for profit, and he even burns the identified fakes to maintain the purity of art!

Thompson is on the contrary. He steals top antique art, not because he loves art, but for money, simple and rude!

In this regard, his realm is much worse than Brevetse, and he has been dumped more than eight streets!

In the way of doing things, the styles of the two are also very different, far from each other!

Brevets likes to do it himself. All antique artworks are stolen by himself. He can be regarded as a top art thief with audacity!

Thompson is just the opposite. Except for the Gardner Museum, other art theft cases, it is estimated that he will not end in person, but hide in the shadows and command, it can be said to be very cunning, an old fox!

From the stolen top antique artworks from all over the world in this warehouse, Ye Tian roughly guessed the modus operandi of this old guy.

He must often browse the websites of major museums on the Internet, and also pay close attention to the trends in the field of antique art collection, obtain useful information from it, and then choose the target of the crime!

Once the target antique art is identified, they will commission professional art thieves active around the world to steal the target and hand it over to them.

This modus operandi is very safe, and as long as you are a little careful, you will basically not be exposed.

During the entire theft process, the price they need to pay is extremely low!

In Europe, the commission fee for stealing a top-quality artwork can be as high as 10 euros! This is the price of the most skilled Snitch, and the others are even lower!

Once these artworks enter Thompson's hands, they must be silent for a period of time. After the theft is basically calm, they will sell the stolen artworks on the black market for profit!

At that time, what they get will not be tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars, but hundreds of millions of profits, absolutely a huge profit!

The silent period is usually seven or eight years. During this process, the prices of these stolen top antique artworks are also soaring, which can be said to be the best of both worlds!

During the whole process, Thompson should be the one responsible for identifying the target of theft, forgery, selling stolen goods, and hiding in the shadows to command. His priesthood is undoubtedly the best cover!

Andrew's responsibilities are to issue orders, receive goods, transport, etc., while Tillerson's gang of horses do some external chores, and they are also scapegoats that can be thrown out at any time!

Their entire team has a very clear division of labor and a well-organized, seamless approach.

In addition to entrusting clever art thieves to steal directly, Thompson and the others are likely to be black market buyers, where they buy stolen top art at low prices.

After many art thieves succeed, they will dispose of the stolen goods as quickly as possible to avoid being targeted by the police. In the end, the bamboo basket is empty, and they go to jail!

In this case, the price of the stolen antique art is extremely low, the vast majority are only 5% to 10% of the actual value!

For Thompson and the others, who are not short of money, how could they miss this opportunity?

They must be buying up stolen antique art on the black market and shipping it to America for sale! Make a fortune!

Thinking of these, Ye Tian couldn't help but secretly gave Thompson a thumbs up again!

What a cunning old man! Do not accept it! "

Then, he raised his hand to look at the time, and then walked to the next famous painting.

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