Theft of The Weeping Woman from the National Gallery of Victoria

Theft of The Weeping Woman from the National Gallery of Victoria

The theft of The Weeping Woman from the National Gallery of Victoria was an art theft of one of a series of paintings by Pablo Picasso known as The Weeping Woman from the National Gallery of Victoria on 2 August 1986. The National Gallery of Victoria had purchased the work for A$1.6 million in 1985, at the time the highest price paid by an Australian art gallery for an artwork. The theft was claimed to be made by a group calling itself "Australian Cultural Terrorists". A number of demands (and insults) by the group were made in letters to the then Victorian Minister for the Arts, Race Mathews. The demands included increases to funding for the arts; threats were made that the painting would be destroyed. After an anonymous tip-off to police, the painting was found undamaged in a locker at Spencer Street Station on 19 August 1986. The theft still remains unsolved.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft of The Weeping Woman from the National Gallery of Victoria