A large number of authorized bronze sculptures, created with the permission of the Spanish Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, were stolen in the early morning hours of 30 January 2020 from the Galleri Couleur in Stockholm.  In a smash and grab theft at approximately 4 am that also damaged additional pieces left behind, the thieves are believed to have made off with ten works of art at the gallery.  Peder Enström, the owner of the Galleri Couleur, has given an estimate that the stolen sculptures are worth between 200,000 and 500,000 Swedish Krona each, though next to nothing on the legit market, given they no longer have their accompanying paperwork and are easily identifiable. 

While Dalí­ was alive, he sometimes made maquettes of his creations, using hollow wax forms and sold the rights to their use these for recasting his work as authorized sculptures. 

These sculptures have a specific serial number and are accompanied by a certificate that certifies that the sculpture is an authorized Dalí­ multiple, with the number of copies made in the series a critical determinant in the object's pricing.  The rarer the piece, or works documented as being cast during Dali’s lifetime (i.e. before 1989) bring a higher price when sold. 

The sculptures stolen this week are multiples that the sculpture Salvador Dalí sold limited rights to via Baniamino Levi.  Their agreement allowed for the production of a limited series at the Perseo Foundry, in Mendrisio Switzerland.  That said the proliferation of the artist's multiple, and their brisk sales are not without controversy.  In any case, if the price seems too good to be true, and the sculpture has no paperwork, buyer beware. 

After negotiations that stretched from the UK, to the Netherlands and beyond two paintings stolen by masked gunmen during a daylight robbery have been recovered thanks to the work of private investigators. 

Snatched from the Scheringa Museum of Realist Art, once located in the village of Spanbroek in northwest Holland on May 01, 2009, the robbers made off with “Adolescence,” 18 x 12 inches (45 by 30 centimeters), a 1941 gouache by Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí featuring the Catalan artist and his one-time nanny and “La Musicienne,” 46 x 29 inches (116 by 73 centimeters), a 1929 oil painting by Polish-born art deco painter Tamara de Lempicka.

In 2009 the museum closed; a direct result of the collapse of the Dutch DSB Bank owned by the Museum's founder and owner, Dirk Scheringa. Forced into liquidation by its creditors, Dutch bank ABN Amro, whose removal men can be seen in the video below, seized 130 paintings from the museum's collection, reportedly to cover a $48 million loan that the museum’s namesake owner had failed to repay. The sale of the museum's collection, both stolen and on site achieved € 2,880,075. 

In a post published on Twitter Dutch art historian Arthur Brand released a statement saying  

Brand further reported that the two artworks had been given to a criminal gang as collateral, in lieu of payment. 

Dali’s surrealist landscape painting depicts a woman’s lips and nose superimposed onto the back of a seated woman,  her eyes and eyelashes are formed by two hills in the background.  The Lempicka artwork shows a bohemian woman in a vivid blue dress, playing a mandolin against the backdrop of a cityscape. 

After an intense months-long negotiation, the two paintings have now been handed over to UK police at New Scotland Yard.  The current owners, who purchased the art as a result of the museum's sale, have yet to be identified publically.