![Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), ‘Portrait of a Lady [detail]’, 1916-17, oil on canvas, 60 x 55 cm, Piacenza, Ricci Oddi Modern Art Gallery. Photo public domain](https://images.prismic.io/barnebys/f3628fcd-a673-4da8-9ec4-57ecc8966501_Cover.jpg?auto=compress,format)
A 24-year-long mystery surrounding the theft of a Gustav Klimt work in Italy is destined to remain unsolved.
The work in question, Portrait of a Lady , dating to 1916-17, was stolen in February 1997 and found almost 23 years later, in December 2019 behind a metal panel in the external wall of the Ricci Oddi Modern Art Gallery in Piacenza, where it had probably been placed a few days earlier. Experts confirmed the authenticity of the found work and, in January 2020, two men claimed to have been responsible for the heist, as well as the painting’s return.
The concurrent crimes of theft and receiving stolen goods had been hypothesized and three people were investigated. Now, the Italian prosecutor has asked for charges to be dropped as not enough evidence has been identified against the three suspects. The final word will be up to the investigating judge. This endless saga that saw Klimt's work as the protagonist risks becoming a cold case and an unsolved mystery.
Related: The Top 10 Stolen Paintings
In 1996, X-ray analysis revealed that the canvas actually contained two portraits, the current one covering another, also of a woman. The historic painting by the Austrian painter, valued at £66 million ($78 million), was put back on display at the Ricci Oddi Gallery of Modern Art in November 2020.
The Klimt case is not the only art theft to make headlines in recent weeks. Last month, investigators revealed that Pablo Picasso's Head of a Woman, stolen from the National Gallery in Athens nearly a decade ago, may still be in Greece.
