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They steal an exceptional piece by Salvador Dalí in Issoire
The bronze cover of the Book of Revelation, weighing 150 kilos and decorated with gold, precious stones and seashells, has disappeared from the Issoire Contemporary Art Center.
An exceptional piece by Salvador Dalí was stolen during the night from Sunday to Monday from the Contemporary Art Center of Issoire, in France. It is the bronze cover of the Book of Revelation , a monumental work conceived and sculpted by the artist from Empordà, which weighs 150 kilos and incorporates, in addition to bronze, gold, precious stones and seashells. The Clermont-Ferrand Prosecutor's Office has described the piece as 'of great value and exceptional and unique.'
The cover was part of an extraordinary publishing project initiated in 1958 by the art publisher Joseph Forêt. Inspired by the text of Saint John, the Book of Revelation was conceived as a total work of art, illustrated on enormous parchments by fourteen prominent artists and writers of the 20th century, including Jean Cocteau, Bernard Buffet and Jean Giono. Dalí took on the design and execution of the cover, conceived as a sculptural piece that integrated precious materials and natural elements.
The complete set of the work weighs 210 kilos. Between 1961 and 1972, the piece was part of some 150 exhibitions held in different countries, before disappearing from the public scene for decades. It was later stored in Switzerland and passed into the hands of Japanese owners. When they were considering auctioning off the different parts, the work was acquired in 2003 by Christian Karoutzos, director of a company specializing in the restoration of works of art based in Issoire.
Karoutzos thus turned the piece into one of the most unique works in the small private museum he had created in the French city. The rest of his collection, as explained by the mayor of Issoire, Bertrand Barraud, was of lower value. The theft, therefore, affects a particularly identifiable and highly unique piece within the collection as a whole.
Barraud described the damage as inestimable and explained that it was "the work of a lifetime" for the owner. After speaking with Karoutzos, the mayor described the collector as a "very dejected" person, who considers what was stolen to be part of France's heritage.
The investigation has been left in the hands of the French authorities, who are trying to determine the circumstances of the theft and locate a piece that, due to its dimensions, weight and uniqueness, is difficult to confuse with any other work. The disappearance once again highlights the fragility of artistic heritage, even when it is in private hands and outside the major international museum circuits.
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