Courtesy Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art

Caravaggio's "The Taking of Christ (or, The Kiss of Judas)" (1573–1602) has been stolen from the Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art.

Caravaggio Study Uncovers Hidden Caravaggio Self-Portrait Tourists Invited to Watch a Caravaggio Restoration Caravaggio Going on View at Chicago’s Art Institute Sergei Eisenstein: The Mexican Drawings Caravaggio the Photographer? Shades of Gray 2008 in Review: Art Crimes of the Year

Send a letter to the Editor

Save to Del.icio.us Digg this

As reported by Reuters, the painting was missing from its frame when staff arrived at the museum Thursday morning. Since the museum had been closed the previous day, the thieves could have stolen the work at any time after 6 p.m. Tuesday evening.

Police indicated that the thieves had entered through a window and, because they removed the pane of glass rather than smash it, did not set off the outdated alarm system. They reportedly escaped through the museum’s roof. Reports indicate that police had been urging the museum to update its alarm system, but that the idea was rejected on financial grounds.

The painting was bought by a Russian ambassador to France and presented as a gift to a Russian prince before it entered the collection of the Odessa museum last century. Some doubted the work was by Caravaggio, but Soviet experts confirmed the attribution in the 1950s. The painting underwent restoration work in 2006.

Another version of the same painting, also by Caravaggio, hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin.