Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in partnership with I Heart Radio. Detective Inspector Jason Barber from the Flying Squad, a branch of the London Police, called the novemberteen robbery at dull Ch Picture Gallery quote an audacious attempt to steal two Rembrandt paintings and that it
was clearly planned an advance. The suspect had his eye on two paintings that were part of Rembrandt's Light, an exhibit of thirty five of the Dutch masters paintings, etchings and drawings, but fled without the works after being confronted. While a gallery spokesperson declined to identify the two paintings which had been briefly taken, they never actually left the building, so they did state that Rembrandt's portrait of Yakota Guy in the third was definitely not involved, So why would
she bother pointing that out? Well, there have been eighty one thefts of Remembrandt paintings during the last one hundred years, eighty one that have been publicly disclosed, that is, and that figure also does not include Rembrandts stolen by the Nazis during the Second World War. This makes the Dutch artist the second most stolen artist in history. He ranks behind Picasso, who can boast as many as one thousand,
one forty seven stolen works. Rembrandt painted during the seventeenth century, and as part of his completed work, she'll find a portrait of a man named Yakob Dega in the third, an engraver who commissioned the painting. The portrait of Jacob Dega in the Third, as it's titled, has since been
nicknamed the Takeaway Rembrandt. And that's because it's been stolen so many times, and each from the same gallery, all between the mid nineteen sixties and the early nineteen eighties, each time for a different reason, and each time in a different fashion, but still four times. Welcome to Criminaliot, where it's art heist season. I'm Maria tram Marquis and I'm Holly Fry. So let's talk about the famous Dutch
artist who created this work first. Today, Rembrandt is considered one of the greats, one of the masters, and some would call him the greatest Dutch painter in history. He created more than six hundred paintings, many of which are highly recognizable works, including The Night Watch, The Return of the Prodigal Son and The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, and he had significant influence on other painters, both during
his lifetime and long after his death. Born on July fifteen, sixteen o six, in Leightden, Netherlands, Rembrandt Harmon zu and van Rin, also known to us best simply as Rembrandt, was the son of Harmon Garretts von Rin a Miller and Nukian von zoitber Okay. He was the youngest son of at least ten children. It was not, as a consequence, expected or assumed that he was going to carry on
his father's business. Since the family was prosperous and able to give their children good educations, Rembrandt was sent to the Leightden Latin School. He enrolled briefly at the University of Leiden, possibly to study theology. His goal at university is actually unclear, and that's not just because the historical record is unclear. It's because he actually really wanted to study art and not any of the other options available
to him. Jan Jansun Orler's Rembrandt's first biographer, reported that quote by nature, he was moved towards the art of painting and drawing. Rembrandt left his studies at the university to instead study the fundamentals of painting with Lighten artists Yakob Isaac's van Swanenburg. After three years with von Swannenberg, in sixteen twenty four, Rembrandt left for amsterday Him and there he studied under the Dutch painter Peter Lastman for
about six months. Rembrandt returned to Lyden and quickly developed a reputation as a history painter and portraitist. By sixty eight, his work was praised by Sir Constantine Higgens, a Dutch Golden Age poet and composer as well as secretary to two Princes of Orange. He was also known as a chronicler of his times, as well as for his belief
in the importance of gossip. Higgins It said, after a visit to rembrandt Lyden studio in sixteen twenty nine, remarked on the artist's ability to convey feeling through gesture and expression, and through dramatic contrasts of light and dark in his art. That same year, Rembrandt, then aged twenty two, took on his first pupils, including Garrett dow and Isaac Youderville. Documents indicate that Youderville paid Rembrandt one guilders a year to
study with him. The Dutch guilder, for those of us who may not be so familiar with it, was the currency of the Netherlands from twelve fifty two until two thousand and two, when it was replaced by the Euro. After a few years in Leiden, in sixteen thirty one or possibly sixteen thirty two, Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam, where
he started to paint portraits of people professionally. He was now a well known portrait artist and ran an active art studio that specialized in portrait commissions with Dutch art dealer Hendrik van Eilenberg. Along with commissioned portraits, Rembrandt also painted more than forty self portraits and portraits of his family.
Van Eilenberg was a key player in the Dutch art market, and in sixteen thirty four the men became both business partners and family when Rembrandt wed Van Eisenberg's niece, Saskia. It was shortly after moving to Amsterdam when Rembrandt began to paint his work, the portrait of Jakob de Gay in the third. It's a little early, but we're going to take a break for a word from our sponsor now, and then we will talk about the commission of the piece and what this painting looks like when we return.
Welcome back to Criminalia. In sixteen thirty two, yakoba In the third commissioned the work that went on to become the most stolen artwork in the world. How strange would that feel if he were alive today to know about that? Probably pretty strange. Yakov de Gayne the third was a Dutch Golden Age engraver in the Hague who also produced
some drawings and a limited number of paintings. He was a canon as in, a clergyman of St. Mary's in the city of Utrecht and a contemporary of Rembrandts, who became Cardinal of Utrecht, and as we're about to talk about, he was also the subject of this now famous oil painting by Rembrandt. In sixteen thirty two, he and his friend Reets Higgens commissioned similar companion portraits from ren Brant.
The guy In and Hygens were close friends while living in the Hague, where Hygens was secretary to the Council of State and administrative body under the States General of the Republic. The artist and these two men were previously acquainted, and de Guine owned some of Rembrandt's paintings. The sitters in their portraits were similar clothing. Imagine if you will, black doublets and rough style, and they face an opposite direction. This is kind of like the ultimate Bestie portraits set.
It's sort of cute when you know that that's how they commissioned these. There is, though, one big difference in these portraits, and that is that one of them has been stolen a lot. These paintings are actually small scale works for Rembrandt, who was known for his life sized portraits. The Degune is oil painted on a wooden panel that's just about ten by twelve inches or thirty by That small size, say some experts, is attractive to thieves because
it's easy to hide. It's easier to hide during the getaway. It's easier to hide when you're waiting to fence it. It's just easy to put it somewhere. This portrait of Degne depicts him as a young man with long hair and a mustache, dressed in a dark cape with a white collar. Following Rembrandts painting techniques characteristic of his early portraits, Jacob's face is softly modeled, with a range of breaststrokes, and some are applied more thickly than others. Cream and
pink colors brighten up his sunlit face. Rembrandt is quoted as having said once a painting is complete when it has the shadows of a god. Despite Rembrand's reputation and that the men were friends, the portrait was criticized in a poem by Sir Constance hin Higgens, who also happy to be the brother of portrait sitter Maurice Higgins, whom were referred to earlier as a big fan of Rembrandt's work,
felt this depiction actually bore little resemblance to Degne. He stated he admired the painting, though, but wrote quote, if Degne's face had happened to look like this, this would have been an exact portrait of Degune. That's harsh. Well, what do critics know anyway, regardless of how spot on
the portrait is or is not. In two thousand six, Guinness World Records awarded Rembrandt's portrait of Jakob Degaine the third the title of most Stolen Painting after it had been stolen four times from the Dullich Picture Gallery in London, first in nineteen sixty six, then in ninety three, again in nineteen eight one, and finally, well, perhaps we hope
finally in nineteen eighty three. The painting has been recovered each time it's gone missing, and recovered in a variety of unexpected places, including in a luggage rack, on the back of a bicycle, in a cab, and even underneath the bench in street um. The Dulach Picture Gallery opened in South London in the beginning of the nineteenth century as the world's first gallery space created to display art
for the public. It's a small space and was designed by architect Sir john Stone, originally to house the nearby Dulach College's collection of paintings by the Old Masters, including work by Rembrandt, as well as Rubens, Gainsboro and canaletto The Italian, French, Flemish, Dutch and Spanish schools of painting were all very well represented. The guying bequeathed his portrait to Maury T Higans upon his death, and the paintings
remained together for many years. That's sort of another cute story of how they were best but I know and the and then after they were both dead, like the families still kept it. They're like, no, we loved, we loved Yakum who stays on the wall of us. Yes. After Marit's death in sixteen forty two, most believe that the portraits remained in the Hygens family, and then emerged once again in the record of a sale at auction to an Allered Rudolph von Vai in February of seventeen
sixty four. Between seventeen eighty six and eighteen eleven, the painting was again sold at auction as well as through private sale, though it did not open its doors to the public until eighteen seventeen. The dull edch acquired the Divine in eighteen eleven at the bequest of Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois, who likely acquired it sometime after eighteen o four. Bourgeois was a court painter to George, the third King of Great Britain and of Ireland, and went on to
become an art dealer and collector. Today, though these companion portraits remain apart, the Degune still hangs in the dull Arch Picture Gallery in London, and the portrait of Maurits is now in the Kunstella Humber. We're going to take a break for a word from our sponsor right now, and when we're back we will talk about the wends and house of each attempt to steal the decigne. Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about each time the takeaway
Rembrandt was taken. So the Takeaway Rembrandt, as it's become known, was first stolen more than three hundred years after it was painted. It was taken as part of a bigger heist involving the theft of eight old masters from the dull Arch Picture Gallery in South London overnight on December. Thieves used a drill and embrace to remove a panel
from an oak door at the dull Edge. Once inside, they removed Rembrandt's painting of yakobd Gain the Third, as well as two other Rembrant works, a Girl at the Window and Portrait of Titus. The thieves also took three pictures by Rubens, including three Women with a cornucopia St. Barbara and the Three Graces A Lady playing on the Clavichord by Garrett Dow and a painting by Adam Elzheimer
titled Susannah and the Elders also were taken. All the missing works, valued between an estimated one and a half million and three million pounds, were eventually recovered safely. Michael Hall, aged thirty two, the only one of the thieves to be caught for the caper, was sentenced at the Old
Bailey to five years in prison. It took a team of twenty one detectives to recover the stolen works, but they did so and within a couple of days of the theft, following a tip off, several paintings were found wrapped in brown paper underneath the bush in the rookery in Strutham Common. Hall later claimed that seven works were stolen to order at the request of a Polish couple
who offered a hundred thousand pound owns Fortnum. He claimed an English collector of Rembrandts had offered him thirty thousand pounds for the artist's portrait of Yako Degne alone. After his release from prison in nineteen seventy, Hall returned to the gallery to offer advice on security upgrades and holes, sharing that trip wires, for instance, should be fixed to
the backs of works and wired to an alarm. The museum, though well, they failed to take any of this advice, and the devine went on to be stolen and recovered multiple more times. Sometimes you learned lessons the hard way.
Sometimes you have to. The second Degagne heist happened in February of nineteen seventy three, when a visitor to the dull Arch Picture Gallery just simply took the painting off the wall, stuffed it into a plastic bag, and then calmly exited the building and then rode off on his bicycle. Investigators asked people to look for a man on a bicycle carrying a Rembrandt painting at a shop bank. That
is not really a description. You'd hear a lot, uh, And within minutes Norman Rutton, who was aged twenty four, was arrested and the artwork was recovered. If you see a guy on a bike with a Rembrandt, stop him, please. Eight years later, and that's so, that's August of between two and four thieves, depending on the reports that you read, entered the Dulache Picture Gallery around noon on a Friday. I gotta say these daytime heists are super amazing. To
me anyway. While one or two of them distracted the security guard, the others quickly snatched the pocket sized portrait from the wall. It was reported that the painting was still not wired the galleries alarm system, and that the alarm system was switched on only at night anyway. Police said after the incident that the thieves simply had to unhook the painting from all and carry it off. Dullach curator at the time, John Sharon, called the Rembrand a
priceless painting. Sharon said quote, it is an extremely well known painting. It would be impossible to dispose of it on the open market. It's more likely it was taken by an art lover for himself or for a collector. In this instance, though that wasn't the case. The thieves had planned to blackmail the gallery for the return of the painting. It's just that they got caught before they had a chance to do so. They were apprehended in a taxi where the work was wrapped in a pillow case.
The painting had been removed from its frame, but it was not damaged. Chief Inspector Colin Evans reported that at the time the men had been under surveillance for days after this heist, the gallery spent roughly fifteen dollars on extra and upgraded security measures. And I apologize I didn't look to see what that was and pounds and then it starts with we of some bad news, sir. The Rembrandt is gone again. I never want to hear that.
Those are the words of investigating officer to Giles Waterfield, the gallery director. In May of nine, despite a newly upgraded security system, the takeaway Rembrandt had been stolen again from the Dulach Picture Gallery, this time in a daring heist that took the thieves through the gallery skylight. The thieves scaled ladders to break into the building, smashing through a skylight in the roof to gain access, and then a second set of ladders were set in place for
the robbers to lower themselves into the art gallery. The alarm was triggered shortly after one am when the thieves used a crowbar to remove the Rembrandt and its frame from the wall. Police, it's reported, arrived within three minutes of that call. But the Degagne and whoever took it, we're gone this time. It took three years for investigators to recover the work and then on a tip on October eighth, the painting was found in a box on a luggage rack in a train station in a British
Army base in Munster, Germany. No arrests were ever made for this Degagne theft. And yes, they left both sets of ladders behind for the next pair of thieves to come and take the right The museum gets back there painting, and they got some ladders, and they got the ladders. Finally they get a bonus on something. So since the mid eighties you've seen the Degage stay in place, and hopefully that's for good. That's a four times same place.
That's embarrassing. It is a little embarrassing. Yeah, would you like some heist hoot? I think I would to get over the embarrassment. This one's very fun, I think because the thing that I couldn't stop thinking about was not all of the thefts on this one. It was the fact that the guy in and his BFF wanted to have portraits making Alright, I thought so too. And I've been saying and anyone who's listening doesn't know this yet, but they're about to that. This is to me going
to the mall. You and your BFF are in the photo booth and you're having your picture shy and you're having a really good time, and then that particular photo keeps getting stolen. Yeah, I mean that's the that's what happens. When your portrait is only a little bigger than the size of a piece of paper. Does it fit in a shirt? It's probably gonna get stolen. So it made me think about a drink that would be fun for best friends to share. And I'm calling it the BFF.
And this is an interesting one because it's very cozy. It starts with black tea and it's a hot one. So I made basically the equivalent of two small cups of black tea. I have a curing with the refillable cartridge things, so I just it like about the equivalent of two tea bags into that and then made a thing of black tea. And then to that I added an ounce of black spiced rum and an ounce of shamboor if you don't have shambour, you can use another
raspberry liquor. But you want that nice, spicy and that sweet, very round flavor that you get from the raspberry. I also wanted a splash of demorra a syrup in mine, which is like a darker sweet syrup. You can also do simple syrup there. Then it becomes a marriage this and a little bit of a borrow from an Irish coffee because we're going to take a couple ounces of heavy whipping cream, put them in a separate container and whip it. You can do that by shaking it in
a shaker. I recently, and let me recommend this to everyone on Earth. I recently, very inexpensively got a coffee frother, which is kind of like a tiny immersion blender. I think I paid fifteen bucks for it. It runs onto double a back matteries. They're very inexpensive. And let me tell you, the heavy whipping cream game is completely changed for me. I didn't know you didn't have one before. I would have been like, hey, how to do this?
It changes a few things. No, I have a bigger one, but I don't have a little one that I can just do like first small amounts for cocktails or whatever. A little one makes a big difference. I added a little bit of sweetener to mine. You can do with or without. Heavy whipping cream has its own sweetness, so It just depends on your taste. And I got that very whipped up, and then I just spooned a little on top of the tea mixture, and then I sprinkled a little bit of brown sugar and coconut sugar on
top of it, which is also brown. And you serve it like that and it looks very beautiful. But if you sip it in that state, you're going to get mostly the tea and just a little bit of the sweetness from the cream. But if you mix it all together as you're drinking, you get the warmest, coziest, yummiest, creamiest drink. It was very delightful, and it makes enough for two people. That's why I call it a drink that you can share. It's not a really strong drink
in terms of alcohol content. So it is again you brew about a cup and a half of black tea and ounce of black spiced drum and ounce of shambor or another raspberry liqueur, a splash of Demora syrup or simple syrup, and give that a good stir together. You're not gonna shake that either. I did that in a glass mixing container, and then you're gonna take about two You could even do three ounces of heavy cream and whip it with or without sweetener, and then put it
on top. Sprinkle a little brown sugar or coconut sugar on their delicious. You share it with your best friend, and that's why we're calling it the BFF. To make a non alcoholic version super easy, you're just gonna leave out, obviously, that black spiced drum. To make up that flavor gap. I would add some spices to the tea, maybe a little bit of nutmeg, maybe a little cinnamon, even a little cardamom, and then a little raspberry syrup in lieu of the liquor. And other than that, you're gonna you're
all set. You can make it the normal way, and it's called BFF and it's meant for two, so you could share it with your BFF. The irony there is that neither my husband nor my best friend would want to drink this drink. My husband doesn't like hot beverages, and I don't think my best friend likes tea all that much. Bryan said, if I made a cold version, he would do into it. So there you go. You gotta try it. At least it could be great. Listen.
I just I picture them drinking warm, yummy beverages and telling each other all their secrets and then going, oh my gosh, we should get our portraits hit me together. That's how I think of Yakov the guy in the third Yeah, I very much think of Yakov and Maurits as that as well. Just oh my gosh, this is the best idea. We're going to love it so hopefully that delights you, and the story of their friendship makes
you giggle as much as it does us. We are so thankful that you're here with us this week, and we will be right back here again next week with another story of art theft and another hopefully yummy beverage. Criminalia is a production of Shonda land Audio in partnership with I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from Shonda land Audio, please visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.