Museum's 'Wanted' poster campaign recovers looted painting
The gist
A 17th-century painting stolen from an Orléans museum in 1940 was found at a Swiss auction and is returning.
The museum's Wild West-style poster campaign has now helped recover four works.
How it unfolded
- Jun 1940Amid the Nazi siege of Orléans, someone stole Un Buveur from the Musée Paul Fourché, an annex of the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans.
- Jul 2026The museum launched its "Wanted" poster campaign to raise awareness of the 424 stolen, looted and displaced artworks still missing from its collection.
- Oct 17, 2026Un Buveur was found in the catalog for an October 17 sale at the Gloggner auction house in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Key terms
- restitute
- A legal remedy ordering a defendant to give up benefits wrongfully obtained at another's expense.
- provenance
- The record of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object over time.
Source: Wikipedia