Affandi’s ‘Self Portrait and Sipping Pipe’. Photo: www.affandi.org
He’s probably not as good looking as George Clooney in Ocean’s Eleven (to be fair, very few people are), but 60-year-old Irwan Purwito is up there when it comes to pulling off the perfect heist. And he almost got away with it.
Irwan was just a technician, who was often called to fix appliances at the house of Widjodjo Nitisatro, who was Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister of Economy, Finances, and Industry from 1973-1983, in Pondok Indah since 1998. Despite his background, Irwan recognized that Widjodjo owned a prized painting called ‘Self Portrait and Pipe’ by renowned Indonesian painter Affandi.
Irwan started to devise a plan to steal the painting in 2005. A year later, he set his plan in motion.
The painting was housed in its own gallery building in the back yard. Irwan recognized that Widjodjo and his family rarely went into the gallery.
“The gallery was rarely used. Usually the Widjodjo Nitisatro family only used it when there’s a family get together or to receive officials,” Irwan said, as quoted by Warta Kota yesterday.
With the help of the family’s driver, Asep Kurnia, he wrapped up the painting and drove it to a painter in Depok to be duplicated. In just eight hours, the duplicate was ready and Irwan took it back to the gallery and hung it up there, with nobody in Widjodjo’s family realizing it at the time.
Irwan then sold the original to a collector named Aryadi Artamimi for an undisclosed fee. He paid the painter Rp 15 million and Asep Rp 10 million for their part in the heist.
Widjodjo finally realized that his original had been stolen when he read news online that the painting was sold at the Sotheby’s Auction House in Hong Kong for Rp 5 billion in May 2014.
Widjodjo immediately reported the case to the police, who tracked down the painting’s transactions over time, which eventually led to Irwan’s arrest in May 2015, nine years after he stole the painting in the first place.
Irwan admitted to the theft, which he said he carried out so he could score some money to marry a younger woman.
Meanwhile, it wasn’t revealed if Widjodjo was reunited with his prized painting. We imagine it would be a convoluted and expensive process to get it back from all the way in Hong Kong.
