Calgary artist gets closure years after art heist – Calgary

A Calgary artist recently got some closure, years after several of her own works of art were stolen during an elaborate heist.

On Saturday night, Michelle Kruger held a highly anticipated art exhibition for nearly 200 people, showcasing half a dozen paintings the public has never seen before.

She called the exhibition 'The Heist' and displayed the paintings as if they were part of a crime scene.

“This situation was pretty easy for me to express that, no, this is not going to beat us. We will rise again, and art always wins,” she said.

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Eleven of Kruger's paintings were stolen along with dozens of other pieces in an art heist at the now-closed Gerry Thomas Gallery in May 2018, just days before a planned exhibition.

All of her paintings in Saturday's exhibition still had evidence stickers from the police investigation, as well as some of the visible damage she suffered during the theft.

“We could fix it, but then we thought, 'That's part of the story.' These are unique paintings, there is no other work of art where they have been involved in this whole incredible story,” Kruger said.

At the time of the investigation, police estimated that over half a million dollars worth of art had been taken during the robbery.

The man charged and convicted of theft returned the paintings to the police, but they were repossessed by an insurance company to assess an insurance claim.

Kruger would get some of her paintings back four years after the incident, eventually exhibiting the pieces six years later than she had originally planned.

“Yes, it's been a long six years,” she said. “So it was nice to have a finale on a positive note.”

Five of Kruger's paintings are still missing and she hopes to get them back one day.

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