Jacob de Gheyn III is a famous painting.[1]
It was painted by Rembrandt in 1632 and is the most stolen painting in the world. It has been stolen and recovered from galleries at least four times, making it the world's most stolen painting.[2]
Every time the painting has been recovered anonymously and as a consequence nobody was accused of the theft. This painting by Rembrandt is so well known that it would be difficult for a thief to take it again.
Jacob de Gheyn III, also known as Jacob III de Gheyn (1596–1641), was a Dutch Golden Age engraver, son of Jacob de Gheyn II, canon of Utrecht (city), and the subject of a 1632 oil painting by Rembrandt. The portrait is half of a pair of pendent portraits. The other piece is a portrait of de Gheyn's friend Maurits Huygens, wearing similar clothing (ruffs and black doublets) and facing the opposite direction
As legend goes, a man by the name of Marcus Smith V was found in a gallery sneaking and slowly making his way toward the painting with intent to steal it. The ghost of Jacob de Gheyn III sneaked up behind him and killed him. the legend is most likely untrue because Smith was with a lover that night and was actually poisoned the next night.
Past painting theft
changeThe painting has been given the name "takeaway Rembrandt" as it has been stolen four times since 1966 – the most recorded of any painting.
Between 14 August 1981 and 3 September 1981, the painting was taken from Dulwich Picture Gallery and retrieved when police arrested four men in a taxi who had the painting with them. A little under two years later, a burglar smashed a skylight and descended through it into the art gallery, using a crowbar to remove the painting from the wall. The police arrived within three minutes but were too late to apprehend the thief. The painting was missing for three years, eventually being found on 8 October 1986 in a luggage rack at the train station of a British army garrison in Münster, Germany.
The other two times, the painting was found once underneath a bench in a graveyard in Streatham, and once on the back of a bicycle. Each time the painting was returned anonymously with more than one person being charged for its disappearance.