Earlier this month a church in Larvik, Norway was robbed of a work by Lucas Cranach, Let the Children Come to Me. The work was soon recovered, and will be displayed again later this summer after it is restored.
It is often said that a high-profile art theft or media attention can actually be a good thing for increasing visitors. Ludvig Levinsen, the general manager of church affairs is quoted in the Art Newspaper, and speculates on this “Munch effect”, a reference to the increased attention paid to that artist when his works have been stolen in recent years. Levinsen speculates on the stolen Cranach from his church, “When it was stolen it created a lot of international media attention . . . Now that we have the painting back we hope people are more aware of what we have.”
Btw, two Cranach altarpiece wings stolen 29 years ago were reported today as returned to a German church in Klieken near Wittenberg. Someone saw them in a Bamberg art shop in 2007. They are only on display for one day, then put away for a couple of years while the church renovation is completed.
Picture: http://www.tagesspiegel.de/comicsinderpresse/Cranach;art772,2760311