Salut James - the great Ensor robbery of 1978
"Bonjour chérie, bientôt en Espagne. Salut, James" (Hi darling, soon in Spain. Cheers, James). At the end of November 1978, a thief of Ensor paintings delivered one final note to the police. After that, he vanished for good. Or did he?
A few months earlier, on the night of 1 April, the thief had pulled off a spectacular break-in at the Municipal Museum on Wapenplein in Ostend. He stole three works by James Ensor: Self-Portrait with Flowered Hat, My Dead Mother, and The Carriage. What followed was a ransom demand and a mad cat-and-mouse game with the police.
During a confrontation in the dunes near De Haan, the thief managed to escape, but the paintings were recovered one by one. Ostend journalist Stefaan Kerger, who as a child often played in the very dunes where one of the stolen paintings was dug up by children, remembers thinking: I wish I had found it! Podcast maker Ronald Verhaegen brings the story to life, with Stefaan, in Salut James.
Tip: Have you already visited the Ensor House and experience center and are only coming for the exhibition? In that case, buy your ticket at the counter without considering time slots.
Last entry at 5:00 PM.
