Isabella Stewart Gardner

Picasso Among Works of Art Stolen from Paris Art Museum

A valuable Pablo Picasso painting was stolen early this morning from the Paris Museum of Modern Art by a masked thief. The robber also stole four other important works of art with total value estimated to be somewhere between $120 million and $616 million, according to Paris enforcement officials.

The stolen works of art that were cut from their frames include Picasso's The Pigeon with the Peas, Amedeo Modigliani's Woman with a Fan, Georges Braque's Olive Tree near Estaque, Henri Matisse's Pastoral and Fernand Leger's Still Life with Chandeliers.

Indeed, a similar theft took place in 1990 at Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The 13 stolen works of art that were cut from their frames have yet to be recovered. The museum is offering a reward of $5 million for information leading to the recovery of the missing works in good condition.

The theft comes only a few weeks after Picasso's 1932 masterpiece, "Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust" was sold for $106.5 million, a world record auction price for any work of art. The painting, which was from the collection of Mrs. Sidney F. Brody, was sold by Christies New York.

Tags: art, art theft, Christies, france, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, paris, Picasso, theft

Isabella Stewart Gardner's Ruby Ring Sold by Sotheby's

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry, Auctions

Isabella Stewart Gardner's ruby ring was sold for just under $2.1 million (including buyer's premium) by Sotheby's in New York.

This week, Sotheby's sold the ruby ring that once belonged to Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924).

The cushion-shaped ruby ring weighs 8.66 carats. The ruby is flanked by single-cut diamonds weighing approximately .12 carat and is mounted in platinum. The ring sold for $2.098 million, including the buyer's premium. Its pre-sale estimate was $1 million to $1.5 million. The ring was sold as part of the Magnificent Jewels sale at Sotheby's, along with the collection of impressive jewels that belonged to philanthropist Patricia Kluge.

Gardner was a philanthropist and visionary patron of the arts whose personal collection of fine and decorative art is housed in her former home, now an esteemed Boston museum, called the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The Gardner Museum, which is filled with paintings, sculpture, tapestries, furniture and decorative arts from cultures spanning thirty centuries, has remained essentially unchanged since her death in 1924.

Gardner was born to a prominent New York family and in 1860 married financier John 'Jack' Lowell Gardner of Boston. She was strong-minded and intellectually curious and enjoyed her reputation in Victorian era Boston for leading an avant-garde lifestyle. Gardner frequently traveled abroad to expand their knowledge of art as well as European and Asian cultures.

Tags: auction, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, magnificent jewels, magnificent jewels auction, ruby, ruby ring, Sothebys

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