''Beach in Pourville'' (title in French: ''La plage à Pourville, soleil couchant'') is a painting by French artist

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. Durin ...

.. It is one of an 1882 series of oil-on-canvas works by Monet in the small seaside resort of Pourville-sur-Mer (now part of the ''commune'' of

Hautot-sur-Mer Hautot-sur-Mer (, literally ''Hautot on Sea'') is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France. Geography A small town of farming and light industry situated in the Pays de Caux, immediately to the west of ...

), near

Dieppe Dieppe (; Norman: ''Dgieppe'') is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to N ...

in northern France. Monet is considered one of the most important members of the group of painters identified as the Impressionists. The painting was bought by the

National Museum, Poznań The National Museum in Poznań ( pl, Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu), Poland, abbreviated MNP, is a state-owned cultural institution and one of the largest museums in Poland. It houses a rich collection of Polish painting from the 16th century on, an ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

in 1906 and exhibited in the display of their collection..

Theft and recovery

The painting was stolen from the Poznań National Museum in September 2000. It was cut out of its frame and replaced with a copy, which had been painted on cardboard. At the time, the painting was valued at more than $1 million, and was the only painting by Monet on public display in Poland.. The theft was discovered on 19 September 2000, and police searched for a man who had been seen making sketches of paintings in the museum two days earlier. The painting was recovered on 12 January 2010.. Police also arrested a 41-year-old man in the southern Polish city of

Olkusz Olkusz ( yi, עלקיש ''Elkish'', german: 1941-45 Ilkenau) is a town in southern Poland with 36,607 inhabitants (2014). Situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Katowice Voivodeship (1975–1998), it is the capita ...

, whom they believe to be the painter of the copy used in the robbery. The suspect was traced through fingerprints and other evidence left at the site of the theft..

Theft and recovery

See also