Hodler painting “mysteriously” reappears
A painting by Swiss artist Ferdinand Hodler believed to have been stolen from a private collection in 2006 has been found among the owners' archives.
Zurich police confirmed on Monday that the painting, known as Landscape in Ticino and worth an estimated SFr1.1 million ($1.09 million), had reappeared a few days after its disappearance was made public.
Police spokesman Marco Cortesi said the circumstances around the work’s reappearance were “very mysterious” and would need to be further investigated.
The work had been destined to go on show at a Hodler retrospective in Bern. The painting features in the catalogue for the exhibition, A Symbolic Vision, which opened earlier this month.
An agreement had been signed with the painting’s owner to lend it for the exhibition, but when the transporter arrived to collect it in March, it was not there. A woman claiming to be from the transport company had allegedly taken it in the autumn of 2006 and it had not been seen since.
Hodler, who lived from 1853 until 1918, is generally considered Switzerland’s national artist.
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