AWA: Academic Writing at Auckland

Thomas Gainsborough's 1782 Portrait of Madame Baccelli depicts Giovanna Baccelli, principal ballerina for the King’s Theatre, Haymarket, dancing in a pastoral setting that relates to her controversial overt sexuality by accentuating her nymphlike personality.[1] Madame Baccelli gained celebrity most markedly for her affair with the Third Duke of Dorset which aided her social status within late eighteenth century London dance circuits.[2] The portrait is also said to have been part of the Duke’s collection, among which was also a sculpture of the nude dancer.[3] The portrait is full-length and Gainsborough’s ability to create and manipulate movement makes it immediately obvious that the subject is a dancer. Gainsborough therefore denied the typical conventions of portraiture to show not only the sitter as a virtuous woman but her charcter, occupation, and personality to some extent.[4] Gainsborough was said to be one of the most important artists of his generation, delivering works that depicted elegant landscapes and portraits that became increasingly more skilful as his career went on.[5]

In 1974 Dr Rose Dugdale of the Irish Republican Army broke into Russborough House along with other members of the IRA and stole 19 paintings, among which was Gainsborough’s Portrait of Madame Baccelli. Dugdale sought a ransom of £500,000 as well as the release of several IRA prisoners in exchange for the works of art.[6] After a mere eleven days the total nineteen paintings were recovered by Irish police at a cottage rented under Dugdale’s own name, preventing the success of the IRA’s leverage plan.[7] After Dugdale was apprehended she received a nine year prison sentence and gained worldly fame.[8] The 1974 theft at Russborough house was the first theft of the Alfred Beit collection and has gained considerable publicity which is thought to have motivated three thefts of the same collection in 1986, 2001, and 2002.[9] After the first theft, the Beits donated part of their collection to the National Gallery in Dublin, hoping they would not fall victim to thievery again but, regrettably, their plan did not work.[10] Gainsborough’s Portrait of Madame Baccelli was one of two paintings to be stolen in a daylight robbery committed by two thieves in 2001, only to be recovered again 15 months later.[11]

Holding art for ransom in order to finance terrorist activity poses problems for the thieves, especially upon collecting ransom which is when they are most likely to be caught. According to Tijuis, a theft with political motives comes under the category of ideological theft.[12] Thieves can be prompted to steal a particular work because of the name of the artist, the quality, and the period in which it was made. The portrait was completed later on in Gainsborough’s career and shows his masterful skill in depicting movement and likeness, which may have been further motive for the thieves to steal this particular work.[13] The immensely high value of the collection lured in thieves like Dr Dugdale who could demand a ransom knowing that the return of the works was crucial. In the same sense, it is imperative that law enforcement act quickly in such cases where art theft is being used to fund acts of terrorism so that the desire to steal art as a form of criminal insurance is curbed.[14]

It is estimated that art theft is the second most profitable criminal trade in the world.[15] Art theft is also a transnational trade, meaning that many stolen works cross borders, therefore making it more difficult for law enforcement to locate the works and incarcerate the perpetrators. Alfred Beit’s collection is said to be priceless but the collective value of works stolen by Rose Dugdale and her accomplices added up to 8 million Irish pounds.[16] In general thieves do not take contemporary works because they are typically not of such high value, therefore, Sir Alfred Beit’s collection of old masters was perfect for thieves who were looking to seek a ransom. Every year more than 10,000 are added to the Art Loss Register, demonstrating the extent of the art theft problem.[17] The theft of a work can often rid it of its masterpiece title so that it is instead remembered for posterity as a work that was stolen, therefore destroying its artistic credibility and marking it as a simple product of thievery.[18] Art crime, not unlike any other illicit trade, continues to resist laws so prevention, rather than prosecution, is key to halting the theft of art, whether it be to fund terrorist activity or sell on the black market.[19] The Portrait of Madame Baccelli is now housed at the Tate Gallery in Britain where its history and subject still continues to stun viewers.[20]

Bibliography

Albrecht, Henning. Alfred Beit: The Hamburg Diamond King. Hamburg: Ekkehard Nümann, 2007.

Amore, Anthonym., and Tom Mashberg. Stealing Rembrandts: The Untold Stories of Notorious Art Heists. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Barret, Carrie Rebora, and Ellen Gross Miles. Gilbert Stuart. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004.

Bazley, Tom. Crimes of the Art World. California: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2010.

Charney, Noah. Art and Crime: Exploring the Dark Side of the Art World. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2009.

Eliot, Karen. “A Little Business for the Eye: Insights into the London Career of an Eighteenth-Century Ballerina.” Dance Chronicle 30, no. 1 (2007): 1. Accessed March 25, 2014. http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/doi/full/10.1080/01472520601163318#.UztW-EK1Y7Z

Greenfield, Jeanette. ‘Art theft and the art market,” in J. Greenfield, ed., The return of cultural treasures. New York: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Jackson, Richard,  Richard Jackson, Marie Breen-Smyth, Jeroen Gunning and Lee Jarvis. Terrorism: A Critical Introduction. England: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Rosenthal, Michael. “Gainsborough, Thomas”. Grove Art Online. Accessed March 27, 2014. http://www.oxfordartonline.com.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/subscriber/article/grove/art/T030414?q=thomas+gainsborough&search=quick&source=oao_gao&pos=1&_start=1#

Shanty, Frank and Patit Paban Mishra. Organized Crime: From Trafficking to Terrorism, Volume 1. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2005.

Tijhuis, A, J, G., ‘Trafficking in cultural artifacts,’ in Michael H. Tonry, ed., The Oxford handbook of crime and public policy. 2011/12.

Tijhuis, A.J.G. Transnational Crime and the Interface Between Legal and Illegal Actors. Netherlands: Wolf Legal Publishers, 2006.

Riggs, Terry. “Thomas Gainsborough Giovanna Baccelli exhibited 1783”. Tate. Accessed March 28, 2014. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gainsborough-giovanna-baccelli-t02000/text-summary

[1]Carrie Rebora Barrett and Ellen Gross Miles, Gilbert Stuart (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004), 37-38.

[2] Karen Eliot, “A Little Business for the Eye: Insights into the London Career of an Eighteenth-Century Ballerina,” Dance Chronicle 30, no. 1 (2007): 1, accessed March 25, 2014, http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/doi/full/10.1080/01472520601163318#.UztW-EK1Y7Z

[3] Karen Eliot, Dancing Lives: Five Female Dancers from the Ballet d'Action to Merce Cunningham. (United States: University of Illinois Press, 2007), 7.

[4] Ibid.

[5]Michael Rosenthal, “Gainsborough, Thomas,” Grove Art Online, accessed March 27, 2014, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/subscriber/article/grove/art/T030414?q=thomas+gainsborough&search=quick&source=oao_gao&pos=1&_start=1#

[6] Richard Jackson et al., Terrorism: A Critical Introduction (England: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 87.

[7] Anthony M. Amore and Tom Mashberg, Stealing Rembrants: The Untold Stories of Notorious Art Heists (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 18.

[8] Tom Bazley., Crimes of the Art World (California: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2010), 51.

[9] A.J.G Tijhuis., Transnational crime and the interface between legal and illegal actors (Netherlands: Wolf Legal Publishers, 2006),130

[10] Henning Albrect., Alfred Beit: The Hamburg Diamond King (Hamburg: Ekkehard Nümann, 2007), 100.

[11] Tom Bazley., Crimes of the Art World (California: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2010), 51.

[12] A. J. G.  Tijhuis, ‘Who is stealing all those paintings?’ in Noah Charney, ed., Art and crime : exploring the dark side of the art world. (Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2009), 45.

[13] Terry Riggs, “Thomas Gainsborough Giovanna Baccelli exhibited 1782,” Tate, accessed March 28, 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gainsborough-giovanna-baccelli-t02000/text-summary

[14] A. J. G. Tijhuis, ‘Who is stealing all those paintings?’ in Noah Charney, ed., Art and crime : exploring the dark side of the art world. (Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2009), 45.

[15] Sarah S. Conley, “International Art Theft,” Hein Online (1994-1995): 493, accessed March 28, 2014, http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/wisint13&div=20&id=&page=

[16] Henning Albrect., Alfred Beit: The Hamburg Diamond King (Hamburg: Ekkehard Nümann, 2007), 100.

[17] Edgar Tijhuis, ‘Trafficking in Stolen Art, Antiques, and Cultural Property’ in Organized Crime: From Trafficking to Terrorism, Volume 1. (Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2005), 223.

[18] Jeanette Greenfield,.‘Art theft and the art market,” in J. Greenfield, ed., The return of cultural treasures. (New York: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 25

[19] Tom Bazley., Crimes of the Art World (California: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2010), 171.

[20] Karen Eliot, Dancing Lives: Five Female Dancers from the Ballet d'Action to Merce Cunningham. (United States: University of Illinois Press, 2007), 7.