HEADLINER
Art
LOST MASTERPIECES
Lost Masterpieces. A collection of 100 works of art that will never be seen again as they have been lost, stolen, burned, or destroyed. This coffee table book sources art history, research and investigations, and actual crime reports. It is full of anecdotes about the stories of these masterpieces, some of them worthy of a novel!
Have you ever heard of the "Takeaway Rembrandt"? This is not a coffee prepared by an art-loving barista, but the Portrait of Jacob Gheyn III, a masterpiece by the famous Dutch painter, given this nickname because it has been stolen four times.
Sometimes, what is lost can be found, but that is not always the case, as Sophie Pujas testifies in Lost Masterpieces. The book includes a large number of art masterpieces that have disappeared in a wide variety of ways: fires, wars, airplane crashes, dropped to the seabed during the sinking of the Titanic or just plain lost. It includes the portrait of Winston Churchill by Graham Sutherland, which the Prime Minister hated, and which ended up being destroyed by Churchill's wife.
"It's an exceptional book that sources art history, research and investigations, and actual crime reports. Pujas searched multiple photographic archives to find the very high-quality reproductions of the hundred masterpieces," explains Mathilde Barrois-Fischer, Head of International Rights at Gallimard.
This book has been a great success in France with over 4,500 copies sold. It has been widely written up by the press, and is particularly relevant to current events, notably: "The many recent high profile art thefts, and Russia's aggression against Ukraine which has given rise to the largest plunder of cultural heritage in Europe, during an international armed conflict, since the Second World War," adds Mathilde Barrois-Fischer, who has sold the foreign rights to this book in two languages.
"The book has aroused a lot of interest with foreign publishers as the topic has never been broached in most countries. We knew there would be interest in this original look at 100 lost masterpieces, some completely unknown."
The Traditional Chinese rights sale happened very quickly. The Polish deal followed soon after. Several other international publishers are considering this book.
More to come!
Katja Petrovic
May 2026
Lost Masterpieces. A collection of 100 works of art that will never be seen again as they have been lost, stolen, burned, or destroyed. This coffee table book sources art history, research and investigations, and actual crime reports. It is full of anecdotes about the stories of these masterpieces, some of them worthy of a novel!
Have you ever heard of the "Takeaway Rembrandt"? This is not a coffee prepared by an art-loving barista, but the Portrait of Jacob Gheyn III, a masterpiece by the famous Dutch painter, given this nickname because it has been stolen four times.
Sometimes, what is lost can be found, but that is not always the case, as Sophie Pujas testifies in Lost Masterpieces. The book includes a large number of art masterpieces that have disappeared in a wide variety of ways: fires, wars, airplane crashes, dropped to the seabed during the sinking of the Titanic or just plain lost. It includes the portrait of Winston Churchill by Graham Sutherland, which the Prime Minister hated, and which ended up being destroyed by Churchill's wife.
"It's an exceptional book that sources art history, research and investigations, and actual crime reports. Pujas searched multiple photographic archives to find the very high-quality reproductions of the hundred masterpieces," explains Mathilde Barrois-Fischer, Head of International Rights at Gallimard.
This book has been a great success in France with over 4,500 copies sold. It has been widely written up by the press, and is particularly relevant to current events, notably: "The many recent high profile art thefts, and Russia's aggression against Ukraine which has given rise to the largest plunder of cultural heritage in Europe, during an international armed conflict, since the Second World War," adds Mathilde Barrois-Fischer, who has sold the foreign rights to this book in two languages.
"The book has aroused a lot of interest with foreign publishers as the topic has never been broached in most countries. We knew there would be interest in this original look at 100 lost masterpieces, some completely unknown."
The Traditional Chinese rights sale happened very quickly. The Polish deal followed soon after. Several other international publishers are considering this book.
More to come!
"The book has aroused a lot of interest with foreign publishers as the topic has never been broached in most countries. We knew there would be interest in this original look at 100 lost masterpieces, some completely unknown."
The Traditional Chinese rights sale happened very quickly. The Polish deal followed soon after. Several other international publishers are considering this book.
More to come!
Katja Petrovic
May 2026
May 2026