The Concert (Vermeer)
| The Concert | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Johannes Vermeer |
| Year | circa 1664 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Movement | Dutch Golden Age painting |
| Dimensions | 72.5 cm × 64.7 cm (28.5 in × 25.5 in) |
| Location | Whereabouts unknown since the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft in 1990 |
The Concert (Dutch: Het concert) (c. 1664) is a painting by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer depicting a man and two women performing music. It was stolen on March 18, 1990, from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and remains missing.[1] Experts believe it may be the most valuable stolen object in the world;[2][3] as of 2015, it was valued at US$250 million.[4]
History
Although The Concert has been dated stylistically to the mid-1660s, it is first documented only in 1780.[5] It was acquired by Isabella Stewart Gardner in an 1892 auction in Paris for $5,000[6] and subsequently displayed in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. On the night of March 18, 1990, thieves disguised as policemen stole 13 works from the museum, including The Concert. To this day the painting has not resurfaced; it is thought to be the most valuable work currently unrecovered, with a value estimated at US$250 million.[4][3]
Description
The picture measures 28.5 by 25.5 inches (72.5 by 64.7 centimetres) and shows three musicians: a young woman sitting at a
Of the two paintings in the background, the one on the right is
Other arts
Even before the actual robbery, the theft of this painting was the subject of a 1964 episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour called "Ten Minutes from Now".[8][9] Following the real theft, the stolen painting has figured in the novels An Object of Beauty (2010) by Steve Martin;[10] The Medusa Plot (2011) by Gordon Korman;[11] and The Collector (2023) by Daniel Silva.[12] In addition, in Tracy Chevalier's historical novel Girl with a Pearl Earring (1999), Vermeer paints The Concert at the same time that he is painting Girl with a Pearl Earring, an event also portrayed in the 2003 film adaptation.[13]
See also
References
- ^ "The $500 Million Gardner Museum Heist: Have You Seen These Paintings?". Time Magazine. March 18, 2013.
- ^ Gardner Museum 2018, p. 32.
- ^ a b Boser 2009, p. 37.
- ^ a b Kurkjian 2015, p. 50.
- ^ a b Janson, Jonathan. "Understanding The Concert by Johannes Vermeer". Essential Vermeer.
- ^ Gardner Museum
- ISBN 9780691002897.
- IMDb
- ^ "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour - Ten Minutes from Now". The Hitchcock Zone.
- ISBN 9780297863311.
- ISBN 9780545324090.
- ISBN 9780062834874.
- ^ Linda Costanzo Cahir, Literature into Film: Theory and Practical Approaches, McFarland, 2014, p.252
Bibliography
- Kurkjian, Stephen (2015). Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled Off the World's Greatest Art Heist. New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 978-1-61039-632-5.
- Boser, Ulrich (2009). The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-145184-3.
- Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (2018). Stolen. Carlisle, Massachusetts: Benna Books. ISBN 978-1-944038-52-6.
External links
- Vermeer and The Delft School, a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on the painting
- Critical Assessment: The Concert
