For the love of throw pillows

Cliff Schorer* recently located a missing painting by Dutch master Hendrick Avercamp after finding an image of it online on an $18 throw pillow. Last year, Schorer used a reverse image search engine to find an image of Winter Landscape with Skater and Other Figures, stolen in 1978 and now worth around $10 million, on the print-on-demand website Pixels.com. By looking at the metadata of the Pixels.com image, Schorer was able to determine that it was taken years after the famous theft. Schorer traced the painting to a sale at a European art fair in 1995 under the name of Barent Avercamp, the artist’s nephew and student. The painting was sold to a Dutch couple, who have since died... [continue reading on Art News].

*Cliff Schorer is the Worcester Museum of Art's former board president, the museum where it was originally supposed to have been donated to. 

A Former Museum President Tracked Down a Stolen Painting Using an Image Printed on a Decorative Throw Pillow - Art Net

Art Collector Cliff Schorer Locates Stolen $10 M. Hendrick Avercamp Painting with the Help of an $18 Throw Pillow - Art News

Review: Priceless - How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures

Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures by Robert K. Wittman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


As an art lover, I have always been fascinated by stolen art and forgeries. Who did it? Why? How? Where is the work now? Is it hanging on some rich person's wall? (and who does that anyway?!?!). Is it stuffed in a garage somewhere? Did someone stash it somewhere and then die? Can it be covered before it is destroyed and lost forever?

FASCINATING STUFF. If this interests you as much as me, you'll probably enjoy Priceless. It was pretty interesting to learn about how major heists were resolved. It was freaky to learn about works almost recovered and then the opportunity lost due to turf wars and egos. Regardless, listen and you will travel the world in pursuit of lost treasures.

The book was written as a memoir, so it includes the background as to how the FBI's first art sleuth got to his post, which was not what I might have imagined.

It was heartening to learn that the priority was on recovering works first, and catching the bad guys second.

It was equally disheartening to hear about how the art crimes division would fall out of favour, and an intelligent and dedicated agent would be bounced around supervisors that didn't get or appreciate art. But all in all, interesting tales, and a good listen for art and mystery lovers.

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