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Summary The Ritz-Carlton has defended its security measures by calling them the best in the business.
One of Rembrandt’s signed iconic drawings, The Judgement, has been stolen from the Ritz-Carlton hotel. The piece, which is worth $250,000 according to a recent estimate, went missing on Saturday (August 13th) evening in what police believe to be a carefully-planned robbery.The Ritz-Carlton has defended its security measures in place across its chain of hotels as “the best in the business”.Footage from surveillance cameras are now being studied by local investigators. The member of staff working by the painting at the time of the heist was attending to a guest enquiry.The stolen art measures 28cm by 15cm, with an authentic signature from Rembrandt on the back. With sketches in black ink from a quill, the piece is some 450 years old.Paintings from the 17th-century artist have continued to sell well in auctions. A late 2009 lot including Rembrandt’s Portrait of a Man, Half-Length, with his arms akimbo was sold for a record-breaking $33 million.According to analysts in the industry, many thieves target works from well-known artists such as Rembrandt and Picasso, with the name and reputation of the painter adding significant value to a piece of artwork. There has even been a book written on stolen Rembrandt art, with over 80 recorded robberies in the last century alone. Some crimes, such as the 1990 Gardner museum robbery, when 13 paintings went missing, have never been solved.There are downsides, however, to stealing such revered works of art. Due to their prominence, selling the art on can be impossible for thieves because of how recognised they are.
