The New York herald., 1921-01-18
QUEST OF PICTURE
STOLEN IN BERLIN
SHIFTS0VER HERE
Landscape by Rembrandt
Reported Struggled Oh
Ship Bound for |. s.
DUE HERE TO MORROW
Worth 81, 100000. Declares
Owner. but \. y. Experts
Put 1T at S230.000.
TITLE Is NOT RECOGNIZED
Size of 26 by 20 Inches May
Allow 1t to Slip Through
Despite Guard.
DUE HERE TO MORROW
TITLE Is NOT RECOGNIZED

When the steamship Mongolia
which sailed from Hamburg on jan
uary 6. docks at the foot of Twenty
second street tomorrow or Thursday.
customs inspectors and appraisers VIII
be on the lookout for an alleged Rem-
brandt reported to have been smuggled
aboard the vessel. If a painting is
found answering the description of an
oak panel landscape that was stolen
from q private owner in Hamburg on
January 5. It will be taken to Ap-
praisers' Stores and held until an
investigation is made.
Art connoisseurs and collectors ex-
pressed interest yesterday in the re-
ported theft. and an effort was made to
fix the identity of the painting. which
cable report entitled After the Thunder
Storm" This has been difficult, as in
his later years Rembrandt painted a
great many landscapes and at least five
are pictorial rendltions of storm They
were agreed, however, that the report
that the painting was worth s2,000,oO0
was an exaggeration. A Rembrandt
they said, would command about a quar-
ter of million dollars, not more.
Byron r. Newton, Collector of the
Port. said yesterday that it would be
difficult for the Government to place its
hands on the stolen painting If il comes
to this country. The landscape is small,
20 by 26 inches according TO report, and
might be concealed by n clever smuggler.
He said yesterday that no request has
reached his Office asking for search
OF incoming German liners TO recover the
painting.
The report Of the theft of the land
scape recalled to art lovers the hue and
cry raised when the famous Da Ninci
masterpiece Mona Lisa" was stolen
from the Louvre in August, 1911. The
loss kept the police of the entire world
on the trail OF the thief. Mona Lisa
was recovered in Florence more than
two wears after II was taken from the
| Louvre by decorator who concealed II
under his overcoat when he left the
museum at the end of a work day
An examination of the art catalogues
and BODIES classic work on Rembrandt
at both the Public Library and the
METROPOLITAN Museum of Art revealed
that Rembrandt expressed the mood or
a storm in the following panel paint
ings: "a Town on Hill in Stormy
Weather" "A Storm over River
Landscape" "a Coast Scene with Fig
ures in a storm and two works bearing
the title Landscape in q Storm" The
first two are listed in public galleries
i'm the latest available data. the cata-
logues of 1910. but "A Town on Hill
in stormy Weather answers best the
cabled descriptions as to the size of the
stolen painting II was on exhibition in
the Brunswick Ducal Gallery in 1910,
and IA Storm over "A River Landscape"
was then in the Grand Ducal Gallery at
Oldenburg.
The Rembrandt landscapes have an
unusual value because of his striking
treatment of light. according to Bode.
who while director of the Royal Gallery
at Berlin wrote the history and descrip-
ton of Rembrandt's paintings This
treatment Is no more better exemplified
than in the reproductions of storm
scenes.
I sunshine"