34 years ago, Picasso’s “Weeping Woman” was stolen from the National Gallery of Victoria by (self proclaimed) Australian Cultural Terrorists and held for ransom in exchange for more arts funding- at the time it was the most valuable painting bought by an Aus gallery. A #Thread

Before the National Gallery of Victoria purchased Weeping Woman, for and on behalf of the people of Victoria, the highest price paid by a major gallery in Australia for a painting was for Pollock's Blue Poles. The NGV paid $1.6 million for Weeping Woman in 1985 dollars.

Then director of the National Gallery of Victoria ,Patrick McCaughey, said the painting was “the most expensive purchase by any Australian gallery", and "This face is going to haunt Melbourne for the next 100 years." It definitely haunted them in August 1984.

The Australian Cultural Terrorists, on Saturday 2 August 1986, walked in the the NGV aND just unscrewed the painting from its wall mounting then they removed the mounted canvas from the frame and left the gallery without being stopped, caught or seen by anyone.

They definitely knew what they were doing as a specialised type of screwdriver was needed to get the painting off the wall and this tool was not available to the public. Also the way they did it was meant to be an ironic homage to the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre.

No one noticed the painting was missing for two days. The Australian Cultural Terrorists had left a card indicating that the painting had been removed for routine maintenance and no one noticed or thought twice. In fact...

Gallery Staff had assumed that "ACT" on the card left behind– the initials of the "Australian Cultural Terrorists" – just meant Australian Capital Territory, and that the painting had been transferred to the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, in the ACT.

The painting was not insured either! Then Arts Minister, Race Mathews, conceded that the price of insurance was prohibitive for major works of art like this, which isn’t too surprising I guess.

The Terrorists left the following ransom note to the Minister: “We have stolen the Picasso from the NGV as a protest against the ... funding of the fine arts in this hick State and against the clumsy, unimaginitive stupidity of the administration and distribution of that funding”

They had two main demands:
The minister announce a commitment to increasing the funding of the arts by 10% in real terms over the next three years and a new annual prize for emerging painters called the Picasso Ransom Price. Otherwise they would burn the painting.

The Victorian government refused to accept any of the demands and offered a $50 000 reward for information leading to the capture of the perpetrators.

On 19 August 1986, after an anonymous phone call to police, the painting was found undamaged and carefully wrapped in brown paper tied with string in locker number 227 at Spencer Street station, now called Southern Cross Station. A master key was used to access the locker.

Police said that the painting was packed in such a way as to ensure that it would not be damaged, suggesting "quite possibly someone in the art world or on the fringes of the art world” did it. The ATC left one final note in the locker:

“Of course we never looked to have our demands met ... Our intention was always to bring to public attention the plight of a group which lacks any of the legitimate means of blackmailing governments.” Leading many to claim the whole heist was just performance art.
Very Meta.

That’s the kind of place Melbourne is, we care a lot about art and we do the absolute most. We’re weird here, and the coffee is good and the food is even better and we steal our most valuable artwork for the sake of art and we definitely, well and truly, love living here.

No one has ever been arrested for stealing the painting, the crime remains unsolved to this day.

Thank you for your wonderful feedback friends. I re-wrote this, fixed the typos and the mistakes and added some pics of the painting being recovered here: https://www.aftersalazar.com.au/musings/the-picasso-ransom-prize-price