APRIL 2019
I am posting this on April Fools Day! I received this Google Alert today and decided to give it more exposure in our website. The story is unfortunately very true. I was very involved in 2002 with the FBI when two of the Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney murals were stolen from a gallery in Los Angeles where they had been on loan for a Maxfield Parrish exhibition.
Maxfield Parrish murals worth 5 million dollars stolen.
West Panel Right
As the Parrish authority in the US who had originally sold the murals to a Texas collector, I provided the Bureau with images of the originals which had been displayed in our museum in Cornish, New Hampshire, along with measurements and other information that only someone intimately involved with the exhibition of the murals would know.
As the story on the Google link points out, The FBI still lists them worldwide as one of the ten top art works stolen and still not recovered. Let us pray these treasures of American Art are discovered and returned to their rightful owner one day.
West Panel Left
I suggested to the investigators that the murals probably were cut out of their frames, rolled up and taken out via a hole in the roof. Otherwise the thieves would have had to have hired a moving van to transport them while still housed in their heavy standing frames which had been custom built for them in NH. The dimensions of the murals are quite substantial: each panel measures 5 feet x 8 1/2 feet!
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Original Parrish Art For Sale
We thought our readers might enjoy seeing a couple of very interesting examples of Parrish’s art, and which are available for purchase at very reasonable prices.
An original full sized 1896 show poster autographed personally by the artist, which is very hard to come by. By “full sized” we refer to the full poster dimensions of 28″ x 44″. This is Ludwig Catalog item #47.
Autographed 1892 Show Poster
St. Regis Bulletin Concept – 1936
And on the right, a cut- out study done in 1935 for the St. Regis Hotel in New York City as a preliminary concept for a lobby display bulletin. This is Ludwig catalog item #759.
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In regards to our 2019 exhibit of Parrish originals currently for sale, please view all the paintings, watercolors, and drawings by clicking on the Art for Sale link above.
Contact Alma Gilbert for the full catalogue and price list: agilbert@almagilbert.com
