Descriptions on the stolen items:

DUTCH ROOM GALLERY

1. VERMEER, THE CONCERT; Oil on canvas, 72.5 x 64.7 cm.
2. REMBRANDT, A LADY AND GENTLEMAN IN BLACK; Oil on canvas, 131.6 x 109 cm. Inscribed at the foot, REMBRANDT. FT: 1633.
3. REMBRANDT, THE STORM ON THE SEA OF GALILEE, Oil on canvas, 161.7 x 129.8. cm. Inscribed on the rudder, REMBRANDT. FT: 1633
4. REMBRANDT, SELF PORTRAIT, Etching, 1 3/4" x 2", (Postage Stamp size)
5. GOVAERT FLINCK, LANDSCAPE WITH AN OBELISK , Oil on an oak panel, 54.5 x 71 cm. Inscribed faintly at the foot on the right; R. 16.8 (until recently this was attributed to Rembrandt).
6. CHINESE BRONZE BEAKER OR "KU", Chinese, SHANG DYNASTY, 1200-1100 BC; height of 10 ", diameter of 6 1/8", with a weight of 2 pounds, 7 ounces.

SHORT GALLERY

1. DEGAS, LA SORTIE DU PELAGE, pencil and water color on paper, 10 x 16 cm.
2. DEGAS, CORTEGE AUX ENVIRONS DE FLORENCE, pencil and wash on paper, 16 x 21 cm. (This and the above were originally in a single frame.)
3. DEGAS, THREE MOUNTED JOCKEYS; Black ink, white, flesh and rose washes, probably oil pigments, applied with a brush on medium brown paper, 30.5 x 24 cm.
4. DEGAS, PROGRAM FOR AN ARTISTIC SOIREE; Charcoal on white paper, 24.1 x 30.9 cm.
5. DEGAS, PROGRAM FOR AN ARTISTIC SOIREE; a less finished version of the above, charcoal on buff paper, 23.4 x 30 cm. (This and the above were originally in a single frame.)

BLUE ROOM GALLERY

1. MANET, CHEZ TORTONI; Oil on canvas, 26 x 34 cm

Also taken was the Bronze Eagle off the Napoleonic flag.

Stolen Items:

Dutch Room Gallery:

1.
2. 3. 4. 5.Short Gallery:

1. 2. 3. 4.
5.
6.
Blue Room Gallery:
1. The Bronze Eagle:

Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas was born in Paris as the son of a wealthy banker. He studied art at the famous Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. After having finished his studies he went to Italy where he stayed for five year studying and copying meticulously the old masters of the Renaissance. His decision to study the old masters was typical for his personality - that of a perfectionist.The favorite subjects of Degas were scenes from the world of entertainment and later from everyday's life. Ballet dancers, little ballerinas, women in intimate situations and horse races are the subjects that are immediately associated with him.Degas used a wide variety of mediums and techniques. When he grew older, he turned to sculptoring, pastels and printmaking.During the war with Germany in 1870-1871 Degas served in the French army. The medical cause is not known, but since his time in the military service, he had problems with his eyes. In his late years the artist's eyesight deteriorated more and more. He was unable to create oil paintings and focused his artistic creativity on sculptures. Degas formed his sculptures using wax or clay. Favorite subjects were ballerinas or race horses.

(http://www.artelino.com/articles/edgar_degas.asp)

Edouard Manet

Edouard Manet was born in a wealthy family of magistrates on his father side and diplomats on his mother side. After having failed the entrance examination to the Naval College, he leaves France towards Rio in 1848 as a cadet on a training ship.

Back in France, his father authorizes him to devote himself to painting, towards which he had felt attracted since his childhood. He compels him to follow a solid formation at the School of Fine Arts in the Workshop of painter Thomas COUTURE, where he was to remain during six long years. Although he had suffered from Couture's method of teaching which required "ideal and impersonality", he will keep for him all his lifetime a certain respect.

"I paint what I see, and not what others like to see" Edouard MANET.

(http://www.impressionniste.net/manet_edouard.htm)

Govaert Flinck

Govaert Flinck first studied in the Netherlands under painter and art dealer, Lambert Lastman. He also met Jacob Backer through his master, who was very influential in Flinck’s early style. He moved to Amsterdam in 1633 and studied with Rembrandt ban Rijn. During this time, his paintings were so similar to his master’s that some have been wrongly credited to Rembrandt. Under the influence of Anthony van Dyck and other Flemish artists, Flinck began painting more elegant and colorful portraits. He became a very popular artist in Amsterdam after painting an allegorical piece for Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. Flinck also received a commission to work on the royal residence, Huis ten Bosch and the new town hall. In 1659, he was summoned to create twelve paintings for the city’s civic hall, but died before he could even start them.

(http://wwar.com/masters/f/flinck-govaert.html)

Vermeer

Although only a scant few archival records have survived which directly regard Vermeer in recent years historians have nonetheless deduced a relatively clear picture of both his life and artistic stature utilizing those archival documents in conjunction with knowledge of seventeenth-century Dutch social and artistic history and Vermeer's remaining thirty-five paintings.Vermeer was the second child and only son of Reynier and his wife Digna Baltens. Vermeer's family background would be described today as lower middle-class. His grandparents were illiterate and so was his mother. Vermeer spent his childhood in a large house which his father bought after having improved his economic situation, for Reynier was evidently a hardworking man who lived and invested conservatively. Mechelen, as the inn was called, was located on the Marketplace in the center of the town. Judging from contemporary etchings it must have been quite large, large enough to accommodate the inn downstairs and ample space for Reynier's caffa production.Vermeer probably painted very little in his last years. His death, three years later, at the age of forty-three, was described by his wife, "as a result and owing to the great burden of his children, having no means of his own, he had lapsed into such decay and decadence, which he had so taken to heart that, as if he had fallen into a frenzy, in a day or day and a half had gone from being healthy to being dead."

(http://www.essentialvermeer.com/)

Rembrandt

Rembrandt HARMENSZOON VAN RIJN (b. July 15, 1606, Leiden, Neth.--d. Oct. 4, 1669, Amsterdam), Dutch painter, draftsman, and etcher of the 17th century, a giant in the history of art. His paintings are characterized by luxuriant brushwork, rich colour, and a mastery of chiaroscuro. Numerous portraits and self-portraits exhibit a profound penetration of character. His drawings constitute a vivid record of contemporary Amsterdam life. The greatest artist of the Dutch school, he was a master of light and shadow whose paintings, drawings, and etchings made him a giant in the history of art.
Rembrandt had become accustomed to living comfortably. From the time he could afford to, he bought many paintings by other artists. By the mid-1650s he was living so far beyond his means that his house and his goods had to be auctioned to pay some of his debts. He had fewer commissions in the 1640s and 1650s, but his financial circumstances were not unbearable. For today's student of art, Rembrandt remains, as the Dutch painter Jozef Israels said, "the true type of artist, free, untrammeled by traditions.

www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rembrandt/