Stolen During the Nazi Occupation of Orléans, France, This Painting Was Rediscovered After 86 Years With Help From Wild West-Inspired 'Wanted' Posters

The Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans is on a mission to retrieve hundreds of missing artworks from its collections. It recently tracked down a 17th-century painting by Dutch artist Willem Cornelisz Duyster right before it went to auction in Switzerland

Sarah Kuta | Daily Correspondent

November 6, 2026

In June 1940, amid the chaos of the Nazi siege of Orléans, France, someone stole a 17th-century painting from a local museum. Now, with the help of a creative campaign, the looted painting has been located and is on its way back to the museum for the first time in 86 years.

The piece in question is Un Buveur (The Drinker). Painted by Dutch artist Willem Cornelisz Duyster around the year 1630, it depicts a man seated in a chair, an empty glass in one hand and his other hand raised as if making a point in conversation.

It was housed at the Musée Paul Fourché, an annex of the Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Orléans, when Germans invaded the city early in World War II. It’s not clear who stole the piece, as both German troops and French locals are suspected of plundering the museum’s unguarded collection.

Until a few weeks ago, the painting’s whereabouts were unknown for decades. In July, the museum launched a campaign intended to raise awareness about the 424 stolen, looted and displaced artworks that are still missing from its collection. As part of the initiative, the museum created a series of black-and-white, Wild West-inspired posters featuring various missing works with the word “WANTED” splashed across in bold yellow type.

The campaign is based on a digital catalog of the works the museum created and distributed to galleries, auction houses, law firms and other art-market professionals.

“If a presumed stolen work were to resurface at a public sale or in an estate, we’ll be able to flag it,” Olivia Voisin, the museum’s director, told Le Monde’s Victor Riallais in July. “Times have changed; professionals are wary of the risk of handling stolen goods. We're providing solid evidence, precise clues, so that no one can ever again tell us, ‘We didn’t know.’”

The eye-catching posters were shared on the museum’s social media pages, website and beyond. They caught the eye of an unnamed Orléans resident, who took it upon himself to help search for the looted works. He was clicking through online auction listings one day when he spotted a piece that was described as a study of Un Buveur. Estimated to be worth about $3,400, it was due to be sold by the Gloggner auction house in Lucerne, Switzerland, on October 17.

The man alerted museum officials, who determined that the piece was the original—not a study. When they presented their evidence, the painting’s current owner “immediately proposed to restitute the painting” at no cost, Voisin tells ARTnews’ Devorah Lauter.

“It was pretty natural for him to return it, because he felt that he had been able to enjoy it for 35 years, and it was time for it to go home,” she says, adding that the owner had purchased the work from a London auction house in the 1990s.

The piece is now making its way back to the museum. Voisin thinks the painting could be worth between $28,000 to $33,600 in good condition. However, she notes that it appears to be damaged, with several layers of overpainting and evidence of previous cleaning attempts.

All told, the museum has recovered four works—not including Un Buveur—in recent years. Still, hundreds remain unaccounted for, including pieces by Édouard Manet, Jean Siméon Chardin, Hans Holbein the Younger, Anthony van Dyck and Lorenzo Costa. One missing work is attributed to the workshop of Raphael. Together, Voisin estimates the pieces are worth at least $111 million.

Did you know? Recovered Renoirs

Although they had no “wanted” posters, French police recently recovered two stolen Renoir paintings with DNA evidence and vehicle tracking.

About 350 of the missing works are believed to have been stolen from the Musée Paul Fourché in 1940, when the German invasion revealed the “dark side of human nature,” Voisin told the London Times’ Adam Sage in July.

But “with everyone’s vigilance,” according to the campaign announcement, “they will one day find their way back to the museum to which they were donated for everyone to enjoy.”

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