By January 4, 1967, all eight Old Master paintings stolen from Dulwich College Picture Gallery had been recovered after one of Britain's most dramatic postwar museum thefts. The works, taken in the early hours around December 31, 1966, included three paintings by Rembrandt, three by Peter Paul Rubens, one by Gerrit Dou, and one by Adam Elsheimer. Contemporary accounts valued the group in the millions, making the theft especially alarming for a historic public gallery whose collection was central to Britain's museum history. The rapid recovery followed an investigation led by Detective Superintendent Charles Hewett; Michael Hall, an unemployed ambulance driver, was the only thief caught and received a five-year sentence.
The case became a benchmark in discussions of museum security and art-theft recovery.
