Update on Greece Art Theft
January 9 2012
Pic: National Art Gallery, Athens.
By LH: The other work stolen from the Athens National Art Gallery is thought to be a work by Piet Mondriaan (1872-1944).
These are the only works which appear on gallery's website, so presumably it is one of the nice early oils which is now missing.
Mondriaan was perhaps best known for his later work and his role within the De Stijl movement, turning to complete abstraction and producing his famous 'grid paintings' from 1919 onwards.
These early works in Athens of his native Dutch countryside were painted when naturalism still dominated Mondriaan's work. They were painted in 1905, just before Mondriaan began to adopt a more 'Fauvist' preference for colouring, making the work in question, whichever it may be, of great academic importance.
Sad.
