Francisco Goya (1746 - 1828)

Goya painting stolen while in transit

Reuters
Tuesday, November 14, 2006; 6:41 AM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A painting by revolutionary Spanish master Francisco de Goya, insured for more than $1 million, was stolen last week on the way from Ohio to New York for an exhibition, two museums announced.

The 228-year-old painting "Children with a Cart" was stolen near Scranton, Pennsylvania, according to a joint statement issued on Monday by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and Ohio's Toledo Museum of Art which acquired the work in 1959.

The work was to be displayed at a Guggenheim exhibition, "Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso: Time, Truth and History," scheduled to open on Friday.

The painting was being carried by a professional art transporter at the time of the theft, the museums said. They added the FBI was investigating the theft.

The museums said it would be virtually impossible to sell the painting on the open market, and the insurer had offered a reward of $50,000 for information leading to its recovery.

Goya, who lived from 1746 to 1828, is considered an early force of modernism in art. He was a painter of Spanish royalty and also depicted scenes of horror in a time of social and political upheaval.

"Children with a Cart" was painted in 1778 as a model for a tapestry. It depicts four colorfully dressed children and a wooden cart at the base of a dark tree, with a billowing cloud in the background.