On the night of Saturday, March 14, three valuable oil paintings disappeared from Oxford University's Christ Church Picture Gallery and have yet to be recovered. In total, the stolen works are said to be worth $12 million, according to the Times.
The most valuable work was A Soldier On Horseback (c. 1616) by Anthony van Dyck, who was a Flemish Baroque court painter in England under King Charles I. Van Dyck showed promise from a young age and opened his own studio in Antwerp with Jan Brueghel the Younger when he was just 16 in 1615.
Annibale Carracci's A Boy Drinking (c. 1580), which was also donated along with the Van Dyck to the gallery in 1765 by general John Guise, was also stolen. Carracci was an Italian artist, who pioneered the Baroque movement. This work was painted when the artist was just 20, likely when he was traveling around Italy to study under Italian masters, such as Titian.
The third work was Salvator Rosa’s A Rocky Coast, With Soldiers Studying a Plan (c. 1640s). Rosa was also an Italian Baroque artist, who lived in Florence during the 1640s under the patronage of the cardinal Carlo de' Medici and was known for his flamboyant landscapes.
The gallery remains closed as the police search for the works. The gallery, opened in 1968 by the Queen, is especially known for its prolific collection of Old Masters works that were bequeathed by John Guise to Christ Church, including 200 paintings and 2,000 drawings with valuable works by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Tintoretto, and Albrecht Dürer. How the thieves accessed the gallery or the intent behind the burglary is unknown.
