Stolen EUR 2 million painting from Oxford recovered in Romania after four years

Oana Vasiliu 19/04/2024 | 22:49

The Romanian Police announced that a 17th Century masterpiece, stolen from an Oxford university art gallery over four years ago, has been found in Romania. Salvator Rosa’s “A Rocky Coast, with Soldiers Studying a Plan,” taken from Christ Church Picture Gallery in 2020, has been recovered.

However, two other stolen artworks from the same heist – Sir Anthony van Dyck’s “A Soldier on Horseback” and Annibale Carracci’s “A Boy Drinking” – remain missing. The trio, valued at £10 million, includes works spanning from the early 17th to late 17th century.

According to The Romanian Police, they were alerted by an individual possessing the Rosa painting, who had sold the other two pieces within the country. Van Dyck’s masterpiece, dating to around 1616, and Carracci’s piece from 1580, had adorned the gallery walls for over two and a half centuries before their theft. The individual opted to surrender the Rosa painting, created in the late 1640s, and has cooperated as a witness, avoiding arrest. Thames Valley Police, alongside the gallery’s curator Jacqueline Thalmann, facilitated the recovery in Bucharest last month.