Easter Egg Rabbit - $65.00

Dimensions: 8.00"x12.75"
Size: Small
236 pieces
SKU: 5066

Street in Tahiti - $65.00

a.k.a. Chemin a Papeete by Paul Gaugin, 1891

Dimensions: 9.25"x12.50"
Size: Small
254 pieces
SKU: 1752

Primavera XL - $135.00

by Sandro Botticelli

Extra-large version of Botticelli's "almost stolen" masterpiece.

Large (standard, $95) size can be found here.

Dimensions: 22.00"x13.75"
Size: Extra Large
681 pieces
SKU: 1768

Blossoming Chestnut Branches - $95.00

by Vincent van Gogh

This painting was stolen at gunpoint in February 2008 from the Buehrle Museum in Zurich, but was recovered one week later.  Two paintings taken during the heist remain missing.

Dimensions: 16.25"x12.75"
Size: Large (Standard)
443 pieces
SKU: 1776

The Battle of Carnival and Lent - $145.00

The Battle of Carnival and Lent, Pieter Bruegel the Elder

This painting was looted by the Nazis from the National Museum in Krakow, shortly after the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939.  It has been missing since.  Bruegel painted several very similar versions of this painting, and the version you see here hangs in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.  The scene depicts the annual three-day festival of Carnival, which precedes Lent.  In this typical re-enactment, party-goers and revelers celebrate amidst beggars and cripples on the left side, and pious church goers display mercy and charity on the right.  In the center, a fat man representing carnival rides a giant beer barrel to joust with the skinny Lent, dressed in mourning and sitting on an uncomfortable prayer stool.

Dimensions: 21.25"x14.75"
Size: Extra Large
707 pieces
SKU: 1771

Primavera - $95.00

by Sandro Botticelli

Some artworks narrowly escaped plundering.  The Uffizi Gallery in Florence hid most of its major masterpieces in various castles and villas in the surrounding Tuscan countryside, many at the Villa Montegufoni outside of Florence.  As German troops finally retreated in 1943, the Uffizi librarian arrived at the villa, horrified to find many of the crates pried open, and some works taken.  But the Germans must have been in a hurry, as most of the major prizes remained intact in their cases, including this huge Botticelli masterpiece, which measures 7 feet by 10 feet.

This puzzle contains an extra credit bonus problem; can you create the Celtic knot in the photo?

We also offer an Extra-Large version (681 pieces, $145) of this puzzle here.

Dimensions: 18.75"x11.75"
Size: Large (Standard)
512 pieces
SKU: 1766

Berlin Street Scene - $95.00

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1913.

Kirchner was labeled a degenerate artist by the Nazis in the 1930s, and over 600 of his works were destroyed.  Jewish shoe manufacturer Alfred Hess acquired this painting before the Nazis came to power, and the Hess collection was safely shipped to Zurich in 1933.  The Gestapo later forced the family to return it to Germany, where it was “repatriated” to a German owner, and it was subsequently given to a German museum.  In 2004 the Hess heirs successfully sued for restitution, and the painting sold at auction for $38 million.

Dimensions: 12.75"x17.50"
Size: Large (Standard)
496 pieces
SKU: 1761

Castle Neuschwanstein - $125.00

Castle Neuschwanstein, image courtesy ALMIDI.NET, Josef Beck

Click here to view an extra-large photo of this puzzle.

The Castle Neuschwanstein is a neo-romanticist palace built in the 19th Century by King Ludwig II in the Bavarian Alps.  With upward of 1.5 million visitors annually, it is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the world.  During World War II the Nazis used the castle as an art repository, primarily for items stolen from France.  After the war American troops removed some 6,000 items from the castle, in most cases shipping them via rail directly to Paris for distribution.

Dimensions: 14.75"x18.00"
Size: Large (Standard)
658 pieces
SKU: 4081

The Rape of Europa - $95.00

by Titian, 1562.

One of the great mysteries of the Gardner heist is why this masterpiece was not stolen.  Here the minor goddess Europa is seduced and abducted by Zeus in the form of a bull, and he takes her on his back into the water.  Some cupids join the chase, and several figures on the shore cheer on the merry procession.  Later, when the enamored pair arrives at Crete, he reveals that he is, in fact, king of the gods, and she becomes the first queen of Crete. The painting has been called "arguably the greatest painting in America.”  Upon receipt of the painting in 1896, Isabella Stewart Gardner wrote, “I am breathless after a two days’ orgy, drinking myself drunk with Europa, thinking and dreaming about her.”  It currently hangs at the Gardner Museum.

The Gardner Museum Heist (including interviews)

Dimensions: 15.75"x13.75"
Size: Large (Standard)
517 pieces
SKU: 1741

View of Krumau - $95.00

by Egon Schiele, 1916.

Sometimes called Schiele's greatest painting, this work was stolen from its Jewish owners by Nazi police in 1938 and subsequently sold, and it ended up in a museum in Linz, Austria.  It remained there for several decades until the movement to restore art stolen by the Nazis became widespread, and the museum finally relented and returned the painting.  The heirs of the original owner sold the painting at auction in 2003 for $12.6 million.

Dimensions: 16.00"x12.75"
Size: Large (Standard)
508 pieces
SKU: 1746