From a Caravaggio portrait painting that was rejected and accidentally destroyed as collateral damage of war, our next stop is a Caravaggio painting that was likely the victim of another kind of war: mob war.

When Caravaggio fled to Sicily in 1608, just one year before he died, he left behind four large original oil paintings. One of them, the Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence, was the pride of the Oratory of San Lorenzo in Palermo until October of 1969, when it was discovered that thieves had entered the church in the middle of the night and cut the hand painted oil on canvas from its frame. The thieves also took a number of decorative art pieces from the church, but the Holy Family portrait painting was the obvious focus of the heist.

Literally nothing more was heard of the painting for 27 years, when a Mafia informant, Francesco Marino Mannoia (seen below), said that he had participated in the theft as a young man. In the home of “Cosa Nostra”, Sicilians had long suspected mob involvement in the crime, and Mannoia’s bold claims rang true with most who heard them. Residents of Palermo and art historians alike were horrified to hear Mannoia’s story that the portrait oil canvas was so damaged in transit that the illegal collector who arranged the theft cried when he saw it.

So I recently ordered a painting from Oil Painting Express and I'm excited to walk you through the process!

1. Deciding on a Painting

Deciding on what painting to get is a process in itself. Some famous paintings make great reproductions, while others might look great in museums but flat in reproduction. And the same can be said for photographs. I decided to get a reproduction, and there was a lot to consider.

If you are getting a reproduction made, think about how detailed the painting is and the depth of color used. Figurative paintings will always look great, whether abstract or realistic, Oil Painting Express artists do a great job on compositions. However, paintings where the focus is solely on color can be tricky as famous artists often worked years to obtain a desired shade.

Also remember that you can change the colors, say if you like a certain print but it doesn't suite your living room. Why yes, they can make that Monet in all hot pink and purple!

If you are curious whether or not your chosen reproduction will look good, shoot an e-mail to orders@oilpaintingexpress.com. They turn questions around quickly and are super helpful.

It was a terrifying interruption to an otherwise peaceful day at the René Magritte Museum (located in the artist’s former home) on September 29, 2009. As three employees and two tourists enjoyed a quiet morning in the small former home of the artist, the doorbell of the by-appointment-only museum rang just after 10:00. Two men entered, held a gun at the museum attendant who had greeted them, forced everyone to the ground in the museum’s courtyard, and then left with one painting in their possession – the 1948 oil portrait Olympia. The painting, atypical of Magritte’s other surrealist object and landscape portraits, shows his wife, Olympia, lying nude on a beach with a conch shell on her stomach.

The painting is valued at over $1 million, but most experts guess that the thieves did not intend to sell the masterpiece. The painted portrait is far too famous to sell, even on the black market, and the men took only the one piece, despite having time and access to numerous other works. The details of the crime suggest that an illegal collector hired these two men to steal this specific original oil art for his or her own underground collection.

It’s rare for the visual arts to make headline news, and it’s unfortunate when they do in a story like this one. On the night of May 19, a masked man entered the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris through a window and stole five oil painted pictures, removing them from their frames and escaping without setting off an alarm. The story quickly made headlines, partially because of the crime’s lurid intrigue and partially because of the estimated value of the words – over $120 million. Since then, we’ve all seen a picture of the painting Le pigeon aux petits pois by Picasso or of La Pastorale by Matisse alongside an article. Those two landscape portraits are usually the only ones mentioned, as the significant but lesser known Modigliani, Léger, and Braque works are often unfortunately lumped together as “three other paintings”.

What can this man possibly be planning to do with his contraband? Plenty of art thieves actually count on simply ransoming the stolen goods back to the owner. More strangely, after a painting has passed through several different owners, it can often be sold to an unknowing customer who is led to believe that the painting is a very high quality reproduction – not the work itself but a skillful oil painting from a picture of the original. What’s most likely in this situation is a third option. Although the value of a stolen painting is markedly less than the official value, the underground art market is unfortunately very healthy. The authorities seem to suspect that this is what’s happening with the five stolen oil portraits, as Interpol has issued a global alert, implying they believe the works may already have been removed from France.

I was instantly fascinated when I saw the headline yesterday: "Italians say they may have found Caravaggio bones”. After centuries of mystery, the lost painter may have been located. Researchers in the Italian coastal town of Porto Ercole have studied the remains of a man who was approximately Caravaggio’s age, who died around the same time as Caravaggio, and who had frequent contact with the lead and other metals that were commonly used in 17th century paint. The researchers have begun DNA testing to determine if the bones can be linked genetically to current residents of the town of Caravaggio who are likely relatives of the Baroque portrait painting artist. Within two weeks, we should know if the bones could be those of the painter.

The possibility of making a pilgrimage to visit the remains of the man who was a master of religious paintings, oil painting self portrait painting, and still life oil painted pictures grabbed me immediately. And then, just as quickly, a question hit me: so what?