In 1951, an original oil sketch by Anthony van Dyck disappeared from an English country estate—only to mysteriously reappear across the pond a few years later. Now, just over seven decades later, an art history professor has finally cracked the case.
The Origin of the Stolen Van Dyck Sketch
Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish artist during the Baroque era. After finding success in Flanders, the Spanish Netherlands, and Italy, he became the leading court painter in England. His elegant and evocative portraits of elite subjects influenced subsequent generations of English portraitists, including Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough.
In the late 1620s, Van Dyck produced an especially popular series of monochromatic portrait etchings known as the Iconography series. These mainly depicted fellow artists and famous figures. Portrait of Duke Wolfgang Wilhelm of Pfalz-Neuburg is one of 37 original oil sketches from the Iconography series that have long hung in Boughton House, a country estate in Northamptonshire, England.
Boughton House, nicknamed “The English Versailles,” is famous for its historic collection of art and decorative objects. Until 1951, the Van Dyck sketches had remained together in that collection—which belongs to Dukes of Buccleuch and Queensberry—since 1682.
Art Magazine Editor Revealed as 1951 Thief
Meredith Hale, an art history professor at the University of Exeter, solved the 73-year-old mystery of the stolen Van Dyck sketch. After reviewing Boughton House archives, auctioneer book records, exhibition catalogs, and personal letters, Hale identified the thief and determined a timeline of events.
In July of 1951, Anthony van Dyck’s Portrait of Wolfgang Wilhelm of Pfalz-Neuburg was stolen from Boughton House. Its disappearance went unnoticed until 1957, when the Duchess of Buccleuch spotted what seemed like an identical portrait at Harvard University’s Fogg Art Museum. After her visit, the Van Dyck sketch in her own family’s collection was noted as missing.
In the meantime, L.G.G. Ramsey, a well-known figure in the British art world, had sold the same Van Dyck sketch to Christie’s London for £189. After changing hands a few more times, the sketch was purchased by a collector in New York, who loaned it to the Fogg Art Museum in 1957. The British duchess’s chance visit to the American exhibition first brought the sketch’s provenance into question.
Hale’s research revealed that Ramsey stole the work during a visit to Boughton House in his capacity as editor of The Connoisseur, a leading art magazine at the time. However, Ramsey’s motive for stealing the Van Dyck sketch remains unclear, as he died in 1990.
