Eldar Ryazanov's film "Old Robbers" is known to a wide audience. According to the plot, two pensioners easily take a Rembrandt painting out of a museum and take it away on a tram.
A similar story happened in reality: the same painting by a famous artist was attacked four times.
Rembrandt's painting of artistic value, "Portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III", has been recognized as the most stolen painting in the world.
The master painted two portraits in the same style, which were commissioned from him by De Gheyn and Maurits Huygens.
The stolen "Portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III" was painted on an oak panel.
But the main thing is that the size of the painting is 29.9 by 24.9 centimeters.
The attackers decided to take advantage of this circumstance.
The painting was stolen for the first time in 1966, and for the last (fourth) time in 1983.
But none of the thieves were punished as they deserved, and the portrait was accidentally returned to the museum.
The first time it was found in a cemetery, then on the trunk of a bicycle, and the third time it was accidentally discovered in the trunk of a taxi.
In 1983, the last time the painting was stolen, it was discovered in a storage locker at a train station in Germany.
The corresponding entry appeared in the Guinness Book of Records in 2021.
Both portraits are now kept in the Dulwich Gallery.
Its administration insists that it would be easier to steal the entire museum building than this small portrait.
Author: Igor Zur