Case · Theft
The Whitworth Gallery Theft
Three works taken — and left in a public toilet
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Image: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Works by Van Gogh, Picasso and Gauguin taken from Manchester's Whitworth in 2003 were found days later behind a nearby public toilet, with a note claiming the point was to expose lax security.
The three works vanished overnight, prompting fears of a professional theft. Instead they were discovered rolled up behind a public lavatory a short distance away, damp but largely intact.
An accompanying note declared the intention had been 'to highlight the woeful security' — an odd, quasi-activist episode in the annals of art crime.