As art heists go, the one that recently struck the Dunkirk Historical Museum is not like to end up in the history books.
But it is rattling the employees of the small institution a half mile from the Lake Erie shore, who discovered in mid-August that four paintings by Dunkirk-born artist George William Eggers had been stolen from a museum storage room.
Staff discovered the missing paintings while preparing for an upcoming exhibition about Eggers, a painter and art museum director who lived from 1883 to 1958 and ranks as the most accomplished artist to emerge from the town. The artworks include a framed self-portrait in watercolor, which shows Eggers in a bright orange outfit reminiscent of a prison jumpsuit, and three other minor pieces.
Dunkirk Historical Society President Diane Andrasik stressed that the stolen works, valued at less than $1,000, were hardly valuable enough to merit the theft. What’s at stake, she said, is the reputation of the museum as a caretaker of important community treasures.
Read full article at source: Four paintings disappear from Dunkirk museum – Gusto
